The Sunfish The largest bony fish in the world is the ocean sunfish Mola mola. These behemoths can grow up to a whopping 2.3 tons and 3.3 m! They are a very peculiar fish, and despite the size that this species can grow to, sunfish give the appearance of being half a fish – their READ MORE
Fish use their sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to gain accurate and up-to-date information about the surrounding environment, which is important to make optimal decisions about possible threats, prey, as well as mates. Due to their aquatic nature fish also have an additional sense, the lateral line or lateralis system. The lateral READ MORE
Accurate, up-to-date information about the surrounding environment is very important in order to make optimal decisions about possible threats, prey, as well as mates. For humans our five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) tell us this information. Fish use the same set of senses, but differently as they are, of course, wholly submerged READ MORE
The red roman Chrysoblephus laticeps is a species of seabream endemic to southern Africa and found from Namibia to Port St. Johns in the Eastern Cape. The red roman is a striking orange to red fish with a robust build, it has a defined white bar on the gill cover and a white saddle. It READ MORE
Plastics are one of humans’ most recent ubiquitous and long-lasting changes to Earth’s surface. Due to the durable, inexpensive, lightweight, strong nature of plastics, they are suitable for an immense range of products, including a number of single-use items. Unfortunately, the same properties that make plastics suitable for a variety of applications make them a READ MORE
Terns are beautiful, elegant seabirds, closely related to the gulls, skimmers, and skuas. Here in Plettenberg Bay we are fortunate to be able to see a few different species, but by far the most common is the coastal and pelagic swift tern Thalasseus bergii. Swift terns, or greater crested terns, are intermediate sized terns with READ MORE
There is perhaps not a more distinctive call in all of Africa than that of the African fish eagle Haliaeetus vocifer. Expressed in flight or perched, with the head thrown back, the evocative weeah-kyow-koy-koy-koy is a well-known sound in Africa. African fish eagles are found throughout most of Africa, having an Afrotropical distribution, and are READ MORE
We had an interesting visitor into the Knysna lagoon recently, a whale shark Rhincodon typus. Whale sharks are very large, slow-moving filter-feeders which have a circumpolar distribution through all tropical and warm water, between 30°N and 35°S. The distribution of whale sharks is temperature dependent, and they are rarely sighted in areas with a surface READ MORE
When one thinks about sound in a marine environment, the clicks and squeals of dolphins, and long songs of the whales comes first to mind. So it would seem logical to think that the acoustic signal from a seismic survey array affects primarily dolphins and whales. While much concern has been over the wellbeing of READ MORE
The perilous state of many fish stocks worldwide is well known, as well as the data deficient status of many fish species, and the people who are have noticed a change over time, excluding the commercial fishing vessels, are the recreational and subsistence fishermen. It was recognized by Rudy van der Elst that such fishermen READ MORE