Volunteer to work with marine wiidlife.
Posted under: Who Knew? Plettenberg Bay
Worldwide Experience loves to send volunteers to one of its most important projects at the ORCA Marine Foundation in Plettenberg Bay, SA (known as ‘Plett’ to locals and regular visitors).
ORCA came into being when mates Tony Lubner and Mark Valentine noticed the correlation between overfishing of silverfish and the disappearance of dolphins from the Bay and decided to get involved in protecting marine life in the region. They set up ORCA to support the key objectives of marine education, conservation and research initiatives.
Plettenberg Bay itself is known as the ‘jewel’ of The Garden Route, with its long stretches of golden sand beaches, a spectacular rocky peninsula, enticing lagoons and unspoilt rivers. ‘Bahia Formosa’ (beautiful bay) as it was called by Portuguese explorers is a fantastic place for conservation volunteers. It boasts a mild maritime temperate climate without extremes of rain or temperature. So, if you are asking yourself just what to do with your gap year volunteering to work at Plettenberg Bay could be one of the finest decisions you will ever make.
The Bay is home to over 100 species of fish including zebra, doublesash butterflyfish, blacktail, roman, elf, galjoen and yellowbelly rockcod. Soft coral reefs give protection to a wide range of species of sponge, starfish and shellfish. The Southern Right whale visits the Bay from July to November to mate and calve, and you may be lucky enough to come across humpback whales in May or June as they migrate or in November, December or January as they return. Killer whales are occasionally spotted along with common dolphins, but playful bottlenose dolphins make frequent appearances. If you would like to learn more about this amazing area for wildlife just click here.
Great white sharks are a protected species in South Africa since they were hunted and slaughtered extensively after bad publicity – we still blame ‘Jaws’ for that! They are found in the Bay area, partly due to the proximity of a colony of many thousands of fur seals found at the nature reserve on the Robberg peninsula. Conservation volunteers may wish to get up close and personal with the great white shark – from the safety of a shark cage!
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