Oceans Research

About this experience

Oceans Research has been operating out of Mossel Bay since 2003, making it one of the longest-running marine citizen science programs in Africa. Participants work as research assistants — tagging sharks, conducting dolphin population surveys, collecting water quality data, and learning field methods from working scientists. The data collected feeds directly into published research, IUCN assessments, and South African marine policy. You are not a tourist. You are an instrument.

"You are not watching the ocean. You are reading it."

Conservation work

• Long-term population studies on great white sharks, bottlenose dolphins, and Cape clawless otters
• Citizen science data collection supporting 20+ years of marine research
• Published studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals
• Local training program for marine field technicians

Sustainability metrics

• shark monitoring — Annual population estimates for great white sharks in Mossel Bay
• dolphin surveys — Monthly population surveys for Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins
• water quality — Monthly sampling at 12 sites along the Garden Route coast