The Knysna Basin Project is excited to introduce you to Jonas Haller, who will be joining us until December 2018. Jonas will from part of our micro-plastics team, looking at plastic input into the Knysna estuary from surrounding rivers, as part of his Masters degree. (more…)
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Sometimes, we don’t realise the curiosities that could be found right at our doorstep, all you must do is look. If you ever find yourself around the Thesen Island Marina in Knysna, be sure to look out for a little boat chugging along with a couple of students and a pool net on board. They’re not there to scoop leaves out of the Marina, I’m afraid, but rather to look for an illusive little fish known as the Knysna seahorse (Hippocampus capensis). (more…)
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My past twenty years of research work at sea involved taking along bins of equipment -glassware, chemicals, oceanographic instruments, batteries and spares for everything. So, walking down to the Keurbooms Estuary for this month’s seahorse survey with all my sampling gear inside a small rucksack, feels minimalistic to say the least. The 50m Research vessel has now been replaced by a canoe, and with my family as crew we set off on an ebbing tide to search for Knysna seahorses, albeit in the Keurbooms Estuary. This is one of the few localities other than Knysna, that this endangered species calls home. (more…)
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My name is James Radloff and I am currently doing my MSc in Marine Biology at Rhodes University. I am working on one of the most alien invasive marine species along the South African coastline, the Mediterranean mussel - Mytilus galloprovincialis. The Mediterranean mussel has the characteristics of a successful invasive species, having a high tolerance to salinity and desiccation, fast growth rate, high reproductive output, they are better competitors than native mussel species and have relatively few predators. Because of these successful characteristics this species has been able to spread extensively along the coasts of South Africa. (more…)
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In the week of the 27th of February, I had the privilege of working in the Knysna Estuary and connecting with the people involved in the Knysna Basin Project. As part of my M.Sc degree I look at the proper identification of the Moonshine worm in the Knysna Estuary. On-going interviews with local fishermen and published data suggest that polychaete worms are increasingly being harvested and utilized as baiting species in the Knysna Estuary. It is, however, not known whether harvesting of polychaetes is sustainable or how the apparent increase in utilization by recreational and subsistence fishermen may affect stocks. These problems are compounded by widespread confusion over proper identification of some species. (more…)
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