citizen science

Newsletter: Long swim

Hi divers

Weekend dive plans

Sunday: Boat dives from False Bay Yacht Club to Roman Rock

We are out on the boat tomorrow for a False Bay crossing – a swim – from that side of False Bay to this side. I won’t be swimming. It’s for a good cause and if you want to show support visit the Mad Swimmers facebook page. I don’t expect to be done much before nightfall so we will skip Saturday and launch on Sunday.

It’s been a while since dived the Northern Pinnacle at Roman Rock so that will be the first dive, and the second will be the ledge and channel slightly south of the pinnacle.

City Nature Challenge – go go go!

It’s the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge this weekend (starting tomorrow), and there are events for citizen scientists of every persuasion – check out the iNaturalist facebook page to find an event near you.

We hope you’ll use your time underwater to record some species and log them as soon as you’re on land again, but other very cool sounding events include rock pooling with ocean rockstars George and Margo Branch on Monday late afternoon (details here), and, if Monday is tricky, there’s a tidal pool bioblitz on Saturday afternoon that promises to be a lot of fun (details here).

If this is all Greek to you, check out last week’s newsletter for some links and more detailed background info.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

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Newsletter: Here’s a challenge

Hi divers

Weekend dive plans

Friday: Shore dives at Long Beach at 8am

Saturday: Shore dives at Long Beach at 12pm

I have students so I will shore dive both tomorrow morning and Saturday afternoon, after the marathon road closures. Sunday and Monday don’t look like good weather days.

City Nature Challenge

Besides a few days of challenging weather for the long weekend there is a different and way more interesting challenge heading your way: the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge 2019. This is a worldwide bioblitz event, happening this year from 26-29 April, during which you get a chance to get outdoors, spot species, and do some citizen science.

Cape Town is participating! If you like competition, we’re pitted against other cities around the world (last year San Francisco had the most observers, who saw the most species, and logged the most observations). Otherwise, it’s a fun opportunity to go diving (or hiking, or paddling, or however you like to get outside), and to share what you see with others.

With the iNaturalist app (for iOS or Android) or on the website, you can photograph (or upload photos you took with your camera) and record all kinds of wildlife and plants. You don’t even have to know what you’re seeing – experts will weigh in with identifications if you are unsure. These citizen science observations are invaluable for mapping species diversity and distribution and are used for all sorts of projects. You can use the iNaturalist app (or website) any time, not just during the City Nature Challenge, and it’s a great tool for recording flora and fauna that you come across, even in your own garden.

On Wednesday 24 April, Georgina Jones is giving a talk at False Bay Underwater Club about the challenge, and the sorts of species you could spot and record. More details on the facebook event page.

We’ll be diving next weekend, conditions permitting, and hope to have some observations to contribute to the City Nature Challenge. We’d love it if you joined us.

regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

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#CitSciDay2018 at Kirstenbosch

Citizen Science Day 2018 was on Saturday 14 April, and the day was dedicated to a Citizen Science Fair in the conference facilities at Kirstenbosch Gardens. I attended most of the talks, and took a stroll around the expo to see what projects are on offer.

The Citizen Science Fair exhibition hall at Kirstenbosch

I tweeted throughout the day, and have embedded the tweets starting each of my threads below. Click on the tweet (just in the middle, on the white background) to open it on twitter and see the full thread of everything that was shared, or just click on the links in the text preceding each of the three tweets. I included lots of links, so if you want to get more information on any of the citizen science projects in question, half the legwork has been done for you.

Here’s a thread of what took place before teatime:

[tweet 985052929790013441 hide_thread=’false’]

Before lunch this is what happened:

[tweet 985081931070164996]

And after lunch we heard all this!

[tweet 985118792819896325]

Not surprisingly, iNaturalist featured strongly. It’s replaced iSpot, and many of the projects rely on iNaturalist for recording of sightings, and identification. You can create an account for yourself and start contributing to several projects by submitting photographs of what you’ve seen, and tagging them appropriately. Here’s SeaKeys on iNaturalist, and more information on this important project – which is a good place to start as a diver in Cape Town.

We’ve posted before about citizen science opportunities in Cape Town; here’s the info on marine projects, and here is more detail on a few of the terrestrial ones. There’s a LOT going on in this wonderful world, so you can definitely find what interests you!

Newsletter: Seasonal changes

Hi divers

Weekend dive plans

Staying dry

Both days this weekend have swell, and wind blowing from the wrong direction, and the current dark colour of False Bay means we are definitely staying dry. The weather does look better on Monday and Tuesday for those that have a flexible work schedule – if you’re one such, get in touch.

Binoculars for Shark Spotters

The Shark Spotters team are running a crowd funding campaign to raise money for new, high powered binoculars for the spotters. I can tell you that the right pair of binoculars makes all the difference. Cape Town’s Shark Spotters program is an international model for a beach safety solution that protects both sharks and people. They are very deserving of your support – please consider contributing to the campaign at this link.

Citizen Science Day

I promised to remind you again about the SANBI Citizen Science day, and it’s rolling around this weekend. There’s a full program of short lectures from representatives of various projects on Saturday, free of charge, in the conference venue at Kirstenbosch Gardens. There’s more detail at this facebook event link, and a list of the talks here.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

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Article: Quartz on octopus cities

I’ve just finished reading another book about octopus (yet to be shared here), and the author talks at length about an octopus “city” off the coast of Australia, discovered in 2009 and dubbed Octopolis. Another, similar location, named Octlantis, has since been found, and scientists have recently published their research on these unusual places. Octopus are not social creatures – at least, they were not thought to be until these two locations, where up to 16 octopus live in close quarters and exhibit complex social behaviours, were discovered.

Octopus at Long Beach — Octopus in his hole at Long Beach. The reddish brown is an angry colour.

Team leader, marine biologist Professor David Scheel, believes that…

… octopus behavior probably hasn’t changed in [the last decade]. Rather, humans’ ability to observe the behavior has. Today more divers are in the water with cameras and better technology to quickly communicate findings amongst divers and scientists.

Once again, the potential for citizen scientists to make discoveries of this nature is highlighted.

Read about the discoveries here. This article, from Citylab, has a map of the most recently discovered octopus aggregation site.

Shrimp news from False Bay

The University of Cape Town has announced that a further three new species of shrimp, all spotted close to shore near Millers Point in False Bay, have been described and named. All three belong to the same genus (Heteromysis), and look similar, with pale bodies marked by red spots and stripes. One of these new (to science) species lives inside octopus dens, and another lives inside the shell of certain types of hermit crab. These three shrimps join the stargazer shrimp that was discovered by and named for Guido Zsilavecz, citizen scientist and author of several books on False Bay’s marine wildlife.

Two of the new species were discovered by local film maker Craig Foster, founder of the Sea-Change project about which we read last week. These types of discoveries are very exciting and should be a great inspiration and encouragement to divers and other water users. Time in the water is rewarded. If you can’t identify something, send an email with its photo to SURG. It is possible to make significant contributions to science while holding down an entirely non-scientific day job!

Read all about the new shrimps here.

Newsletter: Winter closing in

Hi divers

Weekend dive plans

Sunday: Boat dives from Simons Town jetty at 9.30 and 12.30 (suitable for Open Water divers)

It feels very much as though winter has arrived (minus the rain), mostly in the early mornings. When daytime temperatures rise into the twenties, it’s not totally unpleasant! Sunday is one of those days, and we will launch from Simons Town jetty at 9.30 and 12.30. Both sites will be a maximum depth of 18 metres as I have a bunch of Open Water students to qualify.

Citizen shark science

We are big fans of citizen science, so it is great to hear about ELMO’s catshark reproduction study, for which they need volunteer divers. Read more, and sign up, here.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

To subscribe to receive this newsletter by email, use the form on this page!

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