Authors shine spotlight on language of the ocean
TODAY is World Octopus Day and to shine the spotlight on underwater life, a group of divers have made biological discoveries that have attracted some of the biggest names in ocean conservation and marine biology circles across the globe.
The divers, who formed the SeaChange Trust, have recorded their discoveries in a book titled Sea Change: Primal Joy and the art of underwater tracking, which will be launched this month.
Sea Change is told through a moving personal narrative and crosses the divide between “art book” and “natural history”.
The team’s discoveries have led to a groundbreaking octopus/shark sequence in the BBC’s Blue Planet II TV series and an outdoor photography exhibition seen by an estimated one million people.
At least seven new species and over 40 new animal behaviours have been discovered through the tracking methods.
Co-founders Craig Foster, one of the world’s leading natural history film-makers, and Ross Frylinck, published author and journalist, capture how their relationships with the sea creatures change after every dive.
Foster describes tracking as “the language of the wild” and views it as the very first language our ancestors learned to speak.
He said on land, tracking is an extremely complex sensory process dominated by sound and smell, micro-habitats and wind, claw and beak marks – a web of deep knowing.
While with underwater and intertidal tracking, visual sense becomes dominant.
“The supreme teachers of tracking underwater have been the animals themselves: the octopus, the cling fish, the helmet shell, the urchin, the cuttlefish, the otter, and the pyjama catshark.
“It’s their marine tracks that are the strings and keys that make up the musical instruments of the wild, instruments that eventually allow the tracker to tap into the symphony that is our original dance with nature.”
Sea-Change Trust chairperson and executive producer Carina Frankal said they were hoping that the book is the first stage in getting the African kelp forest, home to more than 14 000 documented species, on the map as one of the great natural wonders in the world.
“Currently only 0.4% of South Africa’s oceans is protected and 98% of the ocean territory surrounding our coast has been earmarked for mining.
“We need to make it known just how important it is to protect our marine habitats, so that ecosystems like the kelp forest will continue to thrive for centuries to come.”