Expedition 2025
Our 7th Coastal Research Expedition will retrace the 2019 expedition route, starting at Blombos Nature Reserve and finish at the coastal village of Wilderness. This expedition will entail 11 days of hiking and cover an approximate distance of 210km.
The shoreline will be a mix of rocky shoreline, sandy beaches and steep ocean cliffs with a few interesting river crossings.
.
Expedition Objectives
The goal for our second series of expeditions is to get a comparison of the ocean plastic waste and fishing debris along the shoreline that we have already surveyed. To this end, we will again use a combination of survey methods to capture geo referenced data using CyberTracker.
Expedition Survey Methods
Trashy20 Survey
Conducted every 5km, this survey entails collecting and categorizing all plastic waster and fishing debris in three 10m x 2m transects.
Mini Transects
A total count of micro plastics, nurdles and plastic bottle tops along a random transect of between 1m and 10m.
Bottle Transect
A total count of plastic bottles over a measured distance.
Incidental Survey
Documentation of plastic waste and fishing debris not included in structured surveys.
Marine Fauna Surveys
Documenting the number and status of marine fauna seen. Details of injury and possible cause of death are also recorded, especially plastic ingestion, entanglement and ghost fishing.
African Black Oystercatcher Survey
A focused survey of this species to map the population density variations along the shoreline. On our initial expedition in 2019, our emphasis of recording coastal fauna, and particularly bird species, was to document injured and dead birds only. In hindsight, we realized that we had missed some valuable information by not documenting live birds, especially African Black Oystercatchers.
Sighting records from our expeditions from 2020 through to 2024 have provided valuable data for African Black Oystercatchers which have allowed some insights into factors influencing the variations of African Black Oystercatcher population density in the Southern Cape, which can read from this link : Read Here
Cape Clawless Otter Survey
A focused survey of this species to map the population density variations along the shoreline. In addition to live sightings, we record scat and spoor.
Special Focus
In August 2020 approximately 176tons of plastic nurdles were lost at sea along the Eastern Cape coastline. From November 2020, a three year cleanup program was conducted by SpillTech. The clean up operation was a manual process involving sieving sandy beaches and removing the nurdles. During the sieving process, large amounts of micro plastics were also collected. Sadly, the protocol, because it was not within the nurdle cleanup contract, was to dump the micro plastics into piles on the beach after the nurdles had been removed. On our 2021 expedition, we documented numerous plastic middens between Struisbaai and Pearly Beach. This was a lost opportunity to remove micro plastic from the shoreline.
.
Support and Sponsorship
The success of each of the Strandloper Project is entirely dependent on a phenomenal team of volunteers and sponsors. Our core requirements for each expedition are accommodation, fuel, catering and apparel, especially all weather protection. Contact our volunteer team by email to find out how you or your company can support Strandloper Project on their valuable citizen science research expedition. |
