Year 12 Biology Trip | Gansbaai

Armed with our luggage and recent knowledge about the comings and goings of the common mud prawn, the Year 12 biology class set off for the Uilkraalsrivier estuary in Gansbaai bright and early last Wednesday. This was the fourth year of ISCT’s contribution to data collection in this area, and it was really interesting to see how trends have emerged in our data over the years.

Before arriving we had all done some basic research on the importance of protecting the health of our estuaries and the local biodiversity of the area. How the common mudprawn (Upogebia africana) is doing is a vital sign of the holistic health of the area, as it is such a key prey species for several fish and marine bird species.

We did the majority of our data collection on the first day after we had arrived and settled in, managing to complete 2 out of our 3 required sites. The collection was a full team effort, with us being divided into several different jobs, from pumping to measuring out quadrats and collecting abiotic data (salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration, conductivity, temperature, depth etc.) with a particularly expensive device that also happened to not be waterproof. The data collection was hard work, but surprisingly fun. It was fascinating to see the wide varieties in sizes of the prawns, and that they each have a unique ‘dominant’ pincer that is bigger than the other and used for digging. Scientists don’t fully know why the prawns have developed this dominance, but in our recordings we marked each individual down as either being a ‘lefty’ or a ‘righty.’

We then visited the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary, where we were able to see the slim minority of rescued penguins who can no longer survive in the wild playing happily in their pool. We also had the opportunity to witness a necropsy of an African penguin who had unfortunately not been able to hunt for himself after a boat accident, an all too common fate for numerous marine species. The African Penguin is critically endangered, and it is estimated that they have decreased in population size by over 95%, but the work that is being done by the dedicated crew at the sanctuary is incredible; the passion and hope they still carry for this beautiful species is  truly inspiring. The nearby Dyer island houses a huge penguin colony, and the penguins living there are given artificial nests, monitored via livestream, and checked on daily by the small crew living on the island. 

On the last day of the trip, we embarked on our Marine Big 5 tour with Marine Dynamics, where we did in fact manage to see the complete Big 5! We were able to see seals, sharks, penguins, whales, and dolphins on our way to and from Dyer island; it was truly incredible to witness these magnificent animals existing freely in their natural habits.

Thank you so much to Mrs Young, Ms Gowar and Mr Demas, as well as the dedicated team of researchers for facilitating such an unforgettable experience!

– Angelina