Expedition 2021.
Having surveyed a combined 415km of the Southern Cape coastline in our 2019 and 2020 expeditions, in 2021 we added to this distance and surveyed from Arniston to Hermanus, a distance of 188km bringing our total to 603km, a respectable 20% of the South Africa Coastline.
Expedition Dates
We started hiking from Arniston on the 9th October 2021 and finished 10 days later on the 19th October in Hermanus.
Two Oceans
At Cape Agulhas, we technically reach the divide between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans where the warm Agulhas Current yields to the cold Benguela Current.
Mapping Trash Distribution.
For locals that take regular beach hikes in the Southern Cape, it has become painfully apparent that certain types of plastic pollution washes up at specific locations on the shoreline.
By mapping the location of various categories of plastic found on the hike we will able to link it to possible sources from which they leak into the ocean.
Of particular interest will be the shoreline between Pearly Beach and Grotto Beach, especially after the recent flooding in the region and the subsequent opening of blind estuaries to determine what micro plastic has washed out.
One of the largest challenges will be related to the established abalone poaching in the region. We have already been warned to be vigilant and cautious with the use of our cameras and smart phones.
As our smart phones are vital for our data collection using our Cyber Tracker app, it will be interesting to say the least..
Baseline Survey.
Plastic pollution and fishing debris will be documented using our three survey methods on our Cyber Tracker App. The three surveys are :
- Dirty Dozen transect,
- Bottle Transect
- Incidental Sighting
- Nurdle density
- BRUV survey
- Reef survey
Incidental sighting cover both pollution, fishing activities and marine fauna seen. We will be adding a few more fields for our data collection, specifically the incidental sightings of plastic debris to indicate if the items are terrestrial or ocean derived.
Social Media.
We will again provide daily FaceBook video updates on our progress and finding each morning of the expedition.
To complement our FaceBook updates, we will post on Instagram and you can follow our posts by searching for the #Expedition2021 and #SPE2021
School Participation.
Will the global social ramifications of the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, we not planned for any school groups to participate in our 2021 expedition. We will however be pleased to accept questions pertaining to our expedition i the comments section of our Facebook platform. We will try to answer as many questions as possible on our daily video updates. |
