Living Science

“Imagine the kelp forest as a multi-dimensional puzzle with an infinite number of pieces!”
DR JANNES LANDSCHOFF

LIVING SCIENCE & MARINE RESEARCH

Marine systems are the basis of all life on earth and are the foundation of our wellbeing as humans.

The Great African Seaforest is home to an incomprehensible amount of life. The vision for the Sea Change Science Lab started nearly a decade ago, after thousands of hours diving in the kelp forest. The success of My Octopus Teacher helped us reach an even deeper understanding of how crucial it is to extend our marine biology research as one of the deepest forms of nature tracking.

Marine systems are the basis of all life on earth and are the foundation of our wellbeing as humans. We believe that our combination of marine biology, storytelling, and media work is a most powerful tool to grow this wisdom.

Dr Jannes Landschoff who is directing the marine research division explains: “Imagine the kelp forest as a multi-dimensional puzzle with an infinite number of pieces! Solving small aspects of this puzzle, documenting them, putting them together, and placing them into context to form a bigger picture is the core of our work. This is what we did in My Octopus Teacher. Every organism, every animal behaviour, is another piece in this mysterious puzzle. It requires a diverse team to make the right connections between these pieces, of which expert biodiversity knowledge and scientific tools play a most important role. In research we call the pieces of this puzzle data.”

With a focus on invertebrate biology, Sea Change Science conducts diversity research in and around the Great African Seaforest to support, validate, and feed into our storytelling and filmmaking.

In partnership with Save Our Seas Foundation, we are now working on the 1001 Seaforest Species project, through which we will catalogue 1001 species found in and around the Great African Seaforest by applying our Sea Change underwater tracking techniques. The initial result will be a unique marine biological dataset that becomes a seed-bank preserving unwritten stories and expert knowledge about each of these species for posterity. 

The concept is inspired by the 1001 Arabian Nights. A powerful sultan executes his beloved wife after she is unfaithful to him. After that, every time he takes a new bride, he executes her the next day before she can betray him. Until he marries an enchanting young woman who captivates him night after night with stories that end in an enticing cliffhanger. In his desire to hear each new episode the king keeps her alive and eventually softens his attitude, until she is finally pardoned after 1001 nights of stories.

As humans we have desecrated our wild Mother Nature, killing parts of her every day for centuries. With our new project, we set out to dive into deep nature to chronicle the stories she tells us, so that the world can fall in love with the seaforest once again, treat her with the gentleness and respect she deserves, and give her the pardon she needs to regenerate the biosphere upon which all life depends.
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