Sea Change Project Presents
Stories, news, and journals from the seaforest.
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From tiny amphipods navigating the kelp fronds to rock lobsters scuttling along the reefs, crustaceans are the seaforest’s great connectors. South Africa alone has described more than 13,000 marine animals, of which over 2,300 are Crustacea.
Kelp forests are on the cover of TIME magazine – a first in the publication’s 103-year history. The Great African Seaforest, one of the most biodiverse and least-known ecosystems on the planet, is now in front of a global audience.
Three kelp species — Sea bamboo, Split-fan and Bladder kelp — form the Great African Seaforest, a 1000km biodiversity engine that shelters marine life, sequesters carbon and protects coastlines from waves.
Recent
Kelp forests support extraordinary ocean biodiversity and sequester carbon like terrestrial forests, yet over 60% have degraded. Darwin compared these vital ecosystems to tropical rainforests — and they deserve equal protection.
There is a silence growing between us and Mother Earth. In South Africa, we spend nearly 10 hours a day online – more than any other nation – replacing wonder and wildness with the glow of screens. But through tracking and observation, young people are healing this rupture. At Windmill Beach, learners are rediscovering the ocean through the 1001 Seaforest Species project, studying intertidal creatures and learning Earth’s oldest language. Meanwhile, at !Khwa ttu, San interns reconnect with their ancestral knowledge, reading the shoreline and tracking animals, wind, and memory.
How the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change took a classroom idea to the world’s highest court.
A surprising discovery in South Africa’s kelp forest reveals the true identity of a cuttlefish – and why naming species correctly matters.
Tracking a caracal along the shoreline reveals how we’ve lost the “language of the wild” – and why reclaiming it is key to nature connection and conservation.
The Sea Change Project reflects on its first time attending the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, where kelp forests gained long-overdue political recognition. From inspiring side events to landmark pledges for marine protection, the week sparked renewed hope, connection, and commitment to our blue planet.
Jannes Landschoff and Craig Foster share their encounters with two fascinating marine creatures – an upside-down amphipod and a juvenile Cape sole – that challenged their understanding of the underwater world and highlighted the ocean’s enduring mysteries.
Our planet has a fever. It’s sweating and sick. Last year was the hottest year on record, with average temperatures rising past the 1.5ºC threshold agreed upon by the 195 signatories to the Paris Agreement.
The OceanXplorer is a remarkable vessel. Part dive centre, part science laboratory, part media hub, part every-child’s-dream, it travels the world researching our oceans and has explored uncharted deep-sea ecosystems. It’s high-tech and high-impact, and that evening’s gathering was high-level.
Sea Change Project marine biologist Jannes Landschoff explains how the 1001 Seaforest Species project aims to create a sense of awe for biodiversity.
When Craig travels to London and New York, he feels out of place – until he discovers that a wild mind can still thrive in a tame world.
I watched the mountainside writhe in orange. Stark against the deepening sky, the dance of fire looked deadly and unavoidable. Heroic efforts by helicopters and firefighters wrestled the great beast down, only for it to start ravening on the next range a few miles over. This deadly waltz of fire and firefighters continued for ten days in the fag-end of 2023. Thankfully, there was no loss of human life or property.
Life wasn’t always easy for Dalfrenzo Laing. His family struggled to make ends meet, he dabbled in drugs, took on menial work, and often felt hopeless. But a chance meeting and a deep love of nature transformed his life, and he now spends his days armed with binoculars and an encyclopaedic knowledge of marine and terrestrial life, living with passion and purpose.
We were all forged in the great crucible of the African continent. We are all African by nature, having spent 80 percent of our time as a species here, living in deep reciprocity with nature, each footfall an echo of all animals and insects, plants and oceans.
The Great African Seaforest is home to thousands of species, some that have not yet even been scientifically named and every time you set foot in the kelp forest you are opening yourself up for an experience that you cannot predict.
You can see it when you stand on the shore around Cape Town: the Great African Seaforest. What you see is a narrow stretch of floating Bamboo kelp (Ecklonia maxima). It is one of the few kelp species in the world that grows to the surface at low tide. But what you see at the top is just the tip of the iceberg!
When we originally formed SCP it was a way for us to produce the occasional creative project while immersing ourselves in the kelp forests which we named the Great African Seaforest. As a group we realised that by giving our kelp forests a name we were giving it an unique identity and a presence that connected it to the kelp forests of the world, but also distinguished it as a particular ecosystem found on the shores of Southern Africa.
