Over the last couple of weeks local whale watching outfit Raggy Charters has spotted two different pods of orcas on two occasions while out cruising in Algoa Bay. Owner Lloyd Edwards also saw the one pod cruise by Seaview a little less than a week ago. Yesterday there was excitement in St Francis Bay when a pod was encountered in the bay. We are fortunate to have these visitors to the area every once in a while, but I haven't…
The Port Elizabeth Museum, which forms part of the Bayworld complex, has a very unique exhibit hanging in the Marine Hall. It's the skeleton of the last Southern Right Whale to be harpooned in Algoa Bay. Its the focus piece of a exhibit that covers whales and sharks along with everything associated with them.
Oh how I wish I could spend the day sitting on the rocks like this and just stare out at sea. I did have a super relaxing looooong weekend, but now its shoulder to the wheel till after Tourism Indaba. The next two weeks are going to be seriously hectic at work so please excuse if the posts doesn't have a lot of information in them. If I did decide to slip away to stare at the bay, I would probably…
Here is just a fun post for you. The common name for this undersea plant (or seaweed) is Dead Man's Tongue. It grows on the ocean floor (standing on its foot with the tongue bit pointing up) and gets detached in rough seas and washed onto the shore. As it grows quite deep it doesn't really get much sunlight and doesn't get a green, orange or red colour like most other sea weeds. When they wash up they have this…
I found these tiny little sea snails on the moss (or algae, whatever) in the wreck at Cannon Rocks. In the pic it actually looks like they are sitting on lettuce.
Walking on the beach the other day I found this little dead fish that had washed up on the beach. There were a couple of these "Plough Shells" all over it, but this one caught my eye. It was busy licking the fish's eye.
I spent a couple of days in the city of East London, 300 kilometers east of Port Elizabeth, the other day. I didn't have much free time, but I did get to visit the East London Aquarium. The East London Aquarium is by no means a very big facility. It was officially opened on 2 December 1931 which makes it the oldest public aquarium in Southern Africa. The aquarium has a number of large fish tank displays that feature most…
Karin posted a pic of her son holding one of those snails that live in the tidal zone on Picture this! by Karin yesterday and I went scratching for my Plough Shells pics. A little while ago we went camping at Cape St Francis. While taking a walk on the beach we found literally hundreds of these snails. They live under the sand within the tidal zone. After a wave washes over them they come out of the sand to…