Fun lessons on saving endangered sealife

DID you know squid have three hearts? Or that female sardines can produce 200 000 eggs a season? And that rock lobsters moult 11 times before they are fully grown?

These are just a few of the fun facts in a new book featuring a downloadable pack of cards to teach kids more about fish and sustainable seafood. The book – Let’s play card games and learn about fish – is the work of the World Wildlife Fund’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (WWF-SASSI), with the support of the One Planet network. It should be used in conjunction with the free WWFSASSI app, which is updated with information about sustainable seafood. Teachers and parents are encouraged to download the book for free and to cut out and laminate the brightly coloured fish cards for use in the classroom or at home.

The book contains ideas for more than 15 games and activities for kids from grades 4 to 10 and synchronises with the school curriculum and the cards are adaptable to any age group. There are templates for those who wish to expand on the pack by creating their own cards.

The cards feature the WWFSASSI list, which categorises selected South African and imported seafood species according to their conservation status. The list uses a traffic light system to make it easier for consumers to make decisions when buying or ordering fish. Green means it’s okay to eat the fish, orange means you should “think twice” about eating it and red means “don’t buy”.

Pavitray “Pavs” Pillay, who leads the WWF-SASSI programme, said: “(The card are) a great way to introduce kids to the idea of sustainable seafood and how they can contribute to taking care of our oceans. One of the activities for older kids is to encourage them to look at menus from seafood restaurants and test where they are on the sustainability scale using the WWF-SASSI list. You’ll be amazed at what you find.”

To download the book, visit wwf.org.za/sassi.

For a PowerPoint presentation on how you can use this resource, see wwf.org.za/sassi. To download the WWF-SASSI app go to www.sassiapp.co.za.