Halfway through week 1 and our field days have been nothing short of epic 🌊

Day one with the next @flindersuniversity crew ✔️ An introduction and orientation day focused on boat safety, vessel familiarisation, and basic skills. A solid and important start before the real fieldwork begins early tomorrow mornimg!🌊⚓ Stay tuned for a month of learning and fun! 🌊🦈

This month’s front page of SevenSeas, a travel and conservation magazine, features our Director, Dr Enrico Gennari.

Are South Africa’s white sharks really stable? www.oceans-research.com/white-sharks... South Africa was the first country in the world to protect white sharks, applying a precautionary approach long before population data were available.

As our @flindersuniversity students head home tomorrow, we want to say a very special goodbye. This group brought so much enthusiasm, kindness, curiosity, and hard work into every day — from early mornings in the field to long hours learning, questioning, and growing as marine scientists.

🦈 South Africa’s endangered smoothhound sharks are still under pressure from the Demersal Shark Longline fishery. Dr Enrico Gennari breaks down why proper monitoring and truly sustainable practices are urgently needed. 🎧 Listen to his SAFM interview: omny.fm/shows/the-je...

Ever wondered why we actually film great whites with our GoPros? 🦈📹 It’s not just for epic social content — it’s a key part of our scientific methods! How? By helping us determine each shark’s sex.

A very special visitor returned to our boat today! 🌊🤍 We re-sighted a humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) with a distinctive, wonky mouth — a feature that has made this individual stand out in the South African catalogue for over a decade.

Here at Oceans we LOVE sharks — but every now and then we bring up one of their neighbours instead. 🐟🌊 Our fishing isn’t recreational — it’s scientific.

This week, some of our @flindersuniversity students have the chance to discover the heart of South Africa at Scotia—guided by none other than Dr Enrico Gennari, whose passion brings every moment to life.

Halfway through our programme with Flinders University, and the learning curve has been as exciting as the fieldwork itself. These students have thrown themselves into every shift with energy and curiosity.

Seems like this month is all about smoothhounds for our team! Even though we encounter them regularly in Mossel Bay, our @flindersuniversity students were shocked to learn that smoothhounds are exported to Australia and sold as “flake.”

There’s something undeniably magical about being out on the water after dark — and this week our students got to experience the science behind it. 🌙✨

Have a look at our first week with Flinders University!🤩 www.instagram.com/reel/DRVS8zu...

🚨 New research published in Conservation Biology A global team of scientists — including our Director, Dr. Enrico Gennari — has released an important new study assessing the vulnerability of 256 marine megafauna species to 23 different at-sea threats.

What a start to the week! 🌊 Our visiting group from Flinders University, Australia kicked off their first day in Mossel Bay with an early morning start, getting everyone briefed, geared up, and ready for a full day in the field.

✨ Little treasures between shifts. Every now and then the ocean leaves something special on the sand — like this delicate moon jelly we found today. Those four “petals” in the centre are actually its gonads — and in females they turn pink, while in males they stay white.

A magical moment today — a Sousa plumbea (Indian Ocean humpback dolphin) stayed with our boat for nearly two hours, curious and playful the entire time. Even with a deformed beak, it looked healthy and full of energy.

A very special find for us today!🤩 Our students caught, tagged, and safely released a white-spotted smoothhound — a shark so rarely seen that none of our current team have encountered one in years of working these waters.🦈

🦈 Not all sharks fit the story you’ve been told. Here, you can see just how gentle these incredible animals truly are — simply cruising around our boat, curious and calm.

🎧 Listening to the Ocean’s Hidden Conversations At Oceans Research, our students dive into the fascinating world of bioacoustics — learning how to record, analyze, and interpret the underwater sounds that reveal the secret lives of marine animals 🌊 Learning how to decode the languages of the deep!

📡 Teaching our students the basics with a vintage theodolite — proof that precision doesn’t age. Learning to track angles and movements manually builds real field skills before they move on to the high-tech gear. Old-school science still delivers.

🎣 Why do we teach so many fishing methods? Because every technique reveals something unique about the ocean. 🌊

🤿 ROV Training in Action! 🌊 Operating an ROV takes practice — it’s all about: 🎮 Developing fine motor skills to control movements 🧭 Staying aware of the tether and learning how to untangle it underwater ⚙️ Understanding the ROV’s functions and remote settings to capture the best possible footage

🦈 Safely tagging and releasing a dark shyshark This little dark shyshark (Haploblepharus pictus) was one of our recent tag-and-release encounters along the South African coast.

🦈 The Maldives’ shark sanctuary is under threat. Reopening gulper shark fishing could wipe out species that take decades to recover. Add your voice → only.one/act/save-the-sanctuary #SaveTheSharks #Maldives

🦈 South Africa’s sharks are in trouble — and we saw it with our own eyes. This week’s @mongabay article exposes the crisis surrounding the Demersal Shark Longline (DSL) fishery — where endangered and critically endangered species like smoothhound and soupfin sharks are still being targeted.

Guess who’s back? 👀🦈 After months without white sharks, one of our old friends has returned — seen two days in a row around the boat! Welcome home, Apex Legend. #GreatWhiteShark #WelcomeHome #OceansResearch #SharkSighting #SharkConservation #MosselBay

🎥 Another skill our students learn here at Oceans: science communication 🌊✨ Because doing great science is only half the job — sharing it with the world matters just as much.

🎮 Steady hands, clear focus. During our drone training course, students practice fine motor skills and precision piloting — essential for capturing high-quality imagery and accurate data in the field.

🧽 Scrubbing the boat isn’t just about keeping it shiny — it’s about learning respect for the gear that makes fieldwork possible. Teamwork, responsibility, and care for equipment are just as important as the science itself. A clean boat = a smooth research day. 🌊✨ #MarineScience #Fieldwork #Oceans

🦈✨ A Lucky Release for This Smoothhound Shark ✨🦈 This little smoothhound (about 50 cm) was safely released after being caught during one of our surveys. But sadly, many like it don’t get the same chance.

🪸 Red Algae – More Than Just Seaweed These deep red tufts may seem simple at first glance, but red algae (Rhodophyta) are some of the most fascinating and important organisms in our coastal ecosystems 🌊✨

🔬 Fieldwork find: Paper nautilus shell During an intertidal invertebrate assessment, we came across this delicate paper nautilus shell, which is actually not a true shell at all — but the eggcase of a female Argonauta octopus.

📸 Tongue-eating hitchhiker alert! 🫱 For the common folk: This little critter drinks a fish’s blood, then becomes its tongue — and lives there rent-free. 😳 Not dangerous to people, but definitely one of the ocean’s strangest parasites.

🌊 Meet Amber McAbee! 🌊 Amber joined us all the way from the University of South Alabama, bringing her passion for marine conservation and fisheries ecology to Oceans Research. www.linkedin.com/posts/enrico...

Our students get hands-on with the quadrat and transect method — one of the classic ways to measure biodiversity across the intertidal zone. But, as the saying goes, there’s more than one road that leads to Rome! 🌍

During our egg case analysis shift at the Hartenbos river mouth, the recent opening created some incredible low-water conditions — and our students came across this fascinating find! 🪱🌊 What looks like a coral head is actually a dense colony of tube worms.

🦈 White shark tracking update (Jan–July 2025) 🌊 In collaboration with the Shark Research Foundation, SAIAB, and Stellenbosch University, our program has followed two very different shark stories this year.

🌙 Tonight, we swapped sun caps for headlamps and joined Justin from Saltlife Mossel Bay for a night fishing adventure. The swell was heavy, and the chill set in, but the excitement kept us warm!

After a full week of salt spray, sandy boots, and long research days, our students roll up their sleeves to give Triton a well-deserved deep clean.

An unexpected find on our elasmobranch egg-case survey 🥚➡️🐟 While searching the beach for shark and skate egg cases, our students spotted something unusual—a dried cowfish carapace.

🌊 ROV Skills in Action 🌊 Today’s shift took our students beneath the surface—without even getting wet! 🎮🤿

Mermaid’s purses are a favourite find along the windswept beaches of Mossel Bay 🌊🦈 After strong South Coast tides, egg cases from sharks, skates and rays wash ashore and settle in the sand and seaweed.

🌬️🎣 Windy, wild & worth it! Our students bundled up for a chilly day on the shoreline to try shore angling—a catch-and-release method used in marine science.

🌊 Leading Shark Science at SASRS 2025 🌊 This week our Director Dr Enrico Gennari represented Oceans Research Institute at the 8th Southern African Shark & Ray Symposium with four scientific contributions showcasing the power of collaboration and long-term data:

Tag, record, release. 🌊 During our research trips, every fish is carefully caught, measured, and tagged so we can track species movement and population health. By handling them gently and returning them to the water within minutes, we gather vital data without harming the animals or their habitat.

Last week our students partnered with Garden Route Scuba to investigate the presence of microplastics in Mossel Bay. Using scientific sampling methods, they carefully collected and examined beach sand, revealing that even beaches that appear pristine can contain hidden plastic particles.

🐬 Our students had one of those field days where nature steals the show. A pod of dolphins came right past the boat—close enough for everyone to hear them breathe. The deck went quiet, then full of wide-eyed smiles. Moments like that stick with you long after the trip ends. 💙

Sometimes this is what science really looks like—every hand in, shoulders pressed together, heads knocking like a game of marine-biology Twister 🌀🦈 All for one reason: to keep these wild ocean animals safe and get them back into the water as quickly and gently as possible 🌊💙 #HandsOnResearch