Fighting for reef fishes

WORDS BY PHILIPPA EHRLICH
PHOTOS BY JORIS VAN ALPHEN

A red roman charges out of the kelp forest to eyeball the camera. With large teeth and a strong jaw, these are some of the most territorial fish along South Africa’s coastline.

False Bay is the battleground of two formidable and opposing ocean currents – the Agulhas in the east and the Benguela in the west. Warm and cold swirl together to create a unique ecosystem that hosts a rare combination of fish species. Before the exploitation of False Bay began, a bewildering array of endemic bottom-dwelling reef fishes were present throughout the bay, but today, these populations, making up 25% of the country’s commercial fish stocks, have collapsed. For fishermen this represents a socio-economic crisis. For scientists and conservationists, the protection of these species is a daunting battle.

Keep reading

Getting to the fishing grounds

ABOUT THE SAVE OUR SEAS FOUNDATION

In the effort to protect our oceans, the Save Our Seas Foundation funds and supports research, education and conservation projects worldwide focusing primarily on charismatic threatened wildlife and their habitats. From a small, non-profit organisation funding just five projects, in less than 10 years, the SOSF has grown to become a major player in the fight to save the world’s oceans and the wealth of marine life they contain. While SOSF itself is not a research institute, its generous contributions of financial, practical and scientific support have, to date, facilitated more than 160 marine research and conservation projects around the world.

FALSE BAY