Helen Walne
Writer / Social Media
Helen is an award-winning journalist, author, and underwater photographer. Her awards include the Mondi Award for Creative Journalism, the Parley/ANOther, the Nature Conservancy 2023 Africa Photo Contest, and the 2022 Guru Awards Packer’s Prize for photography.
She has worked as an environmental journalist, columnist, and arts editor, and has been the recipient of artist-in-residency programmes, including Willapa Bay in the US, Kisawa Sanctuary in Mozambique, and Knockvologan Studio in Scotland.
Her memoir, The Diving, was published by Penguin Random House.
Stories By Helen Walne
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.
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.
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.
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.
