Dr Amelie Luhede
Do we need more data? Using Value of Information in conservation decision-making
10 October 2025, 12:00 - 13:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
Decisions in environmental and marine conservation management often need to be made under substantial uncertainty about ecosystem responses to various stressors. Additional data collection and information acquisition can improve the understanding of the system and improve the outcome of the decisions. However, decisions are often urgent, and decision-makers are faced with a trade-off: should they invest in additional monitoring and data collection, thereby potentially delaying management interventions, or should they allocate resources to conservation measures immediately, risking less effective outcomes? Value of Information theory can address this issue. It is a method to quantify the expected benefit from reducing uncertainty about the system under study.
In this seminar, Dr Luhede presented their research on how this economic concept can be applied to decision contexts in environmental conservation and how it can be used to improve resource allocation between monitoring and management.
Amelie Luhede is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) in Oldenburg, Germany. Her research focuses on decisionmaking under uncertainty in environmental management, biodiversity change, thresholds and critical biodiversity transitions.
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Chris Oosthuizen
Towards Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in Antarctica: using animal-borne sensors to monitor prey consumption in chinstrap penguins
26 September 2025, 11:00 - 12:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
Antarctic krill are a critical food source for animals such as penguins and whales. Krill also supports a growing commercial fishery, which may lead to resource conflicts with marine predators. CCAMLR - an international body under the Antarctic Treaty – aims to manage the krill fishery to ensure sufficient food remains for the region’s predators, but consensus is yet to be reached on how to achieve this.
Their research contributes to the development of monitoring indices for krill-feeding penguins that can support Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management. They have developed methods that use animal-borne sensors (similar to wearable tech used by human athletes) and a machine learning pipeline to detect when penguins catch krill. This approach allows them to move beyond simply tracking where penguins go at sea to understanding how well they are feeding - key information for ecosystem monitoring and management.
Chris Oosthuizen is a marine predator ecologist with extensive experience working on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic seabirds, seals, and whales. His recent research focuses on the foraging ecology of penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula, using animal-borne video and bio-logging technologies. He is a Research Associate at the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research.
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Stacey Webb
International Coastal Clean-Up Day - From Local Beaches to Global Policy: ICC Data in Action
18 September 2025, 10:00 - 13:00, Online
Every year, thousands of volunteers across South Africa join the International Coastal Clean-Up (ICC), picking up litter from beaches and waterways. But the story goes far beyond what we collect: every piece of data recorded builds a scientific evidence base that informs policy, shapes industry practices, and strengthens Africa’s voice in global negotiations on plastic pollution.
This seminar highlighted how South Africa’s ICC data has been used locally to drive better resource allocation and nationally to strengthen collaboration between industry, communities, and NGOs. It has shown how African data feeds into global discussions, including the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations, where accurate and consistent reporting from the ground is critical for change. The talk has connected practical lessons from ICC coordination with the bigger picture of systemic transformation, illustrating how local action creates global impact.
Dr Stacey Webb is the Head of Marine & Coastal Impact Programmes at the Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), based in South Africa. She leads multiple portfolios including Research, Development & Monitoring, Education & Capacity building, and Community Upliftment & Economic Development. Currently these portfolios have a strong focus on Operation Clean Spot, SST’s flagship programme to reduce marine litter at source. Stacey serves as the national coordinator of the International Coastal Clean-Up in partnership with Plastics SA, and works extensively with regional and global processes including the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions, FAO/IMO’s GloLitter and PRO-SEAS projects, and the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations. With experience spanning science, community action, and policy advocacy, she is passionate about connecting evidence with solutions, ensuring that every piece of data collected helps protect Africa’s oceans and communities.
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Marine Biological Association - CMR Member Sessions
17 September 2025, 12:00 - 13:00, Online
The webinar included the rich history, pioneering research, and global impact of the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA). Founded in 1884, the MBA is one of the longest-running societies dedicated to advancing marine science. Based in Plymouth, they are both a research institute and a learned society, recognised for their cutting-edge discoveries and our commitment to supporting the next generation of marine professionals.
This talk has explored the vital work of the MBA, from safeguarding rare and important marine discoveries to representing a global community of members across 50+ countries. It was discussed how their membership body supports marine scientists and students at every stage of their careers—providing networking opportunities, resources, and a platform to drive forward marine research and conservation. "Whether you are a student, researcher, or marine enthusiast, discover how the MBA can support your journey and how, together, we can continue to be a voice for our Ocean."
Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Sharon Gabie, Charlotte Veronica and Ms Jewells
National Women's Day and International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
26 August 2025, 13:00 - 14:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
International Indigenous Peoples Day is a crucial occasion to recognise the rights, cultures, and ongoing struggles of indigenous communities worldwide. In South Africa, indigenous women face unique challenges rooted in historical marginalisation and socio-economic exclusion. In this symposium we seek to amplify indigenous women’s voices and explore their lived realities, resilience, and agency in striving for cultural preservation, land rights, and gender justice. Through centering indigenous women’s perspectives, we illuminate critical intersections of identity, tradition, and modernity, to foster inclusive dialogue and policy frameworks that aim to dismantle systemic barriers and empower indigenous women as key agents in their communities and nations.
Sharon holds a PhD in Anthropology. She is a postdoctoral fellow with the Chair for Ocean Cultures and Heritage. Her work integrates academic theory with lived experiences, emphasising practical research application. She is deeply involved with Khoi and San, indigenous communities in South Africa and Namibia working to preserve and revitalise their cultural heritage while advocating for their rights.
Charlotte Veronica (nee Petrus) Bouah was born in Digindane (later called Blikkiesdorp). Charlotte is the youngest of four siblings raised by their mother and grandmother. Curious about history and heritage she was immersed herself in family stories and local heritage from a tender age. Her passion for preserving history led her to pursue studies in Griqua History, which paved the way for her career. Starting as a secretary, Charlotte’s hard work and determination elevated her to the position of Provincial Head of the Griqua Royal House in the Eastern Cape. Throughout her life, she has remained devoted to community service and the preservation of cultural legacy.
Born and raised on a Kleinfontein farm in the Hankey District. Ms Jewells’s early life was shaped by her grandmother’s nurturing hand, a vroed vrou (midwife), Ouma Betjie Jantjies and the strength of her community. Transitioning from rural landscapes to city life, Ms Jewell developed a passion for education and to serve her community. She opened a creche and dedicated herself to uplifting those around her. It is this drive and deep need to help others that led her to further her studies at NMU in remedial teaching. Over time, she embraced multiple roles—mother, grandmother, facilitator, assessor, moderator, and motivational speaker—each reflecting her commitment to service. Ms Jewells' journey is woven with threads of spirituality, empowerment, and even cinematic creativity, all united by her continual devotion to personal and communal growth.
Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Christo Rautenbach
Exploring the intersection of coastal dynamics, climate adaptation, and hydrological planning
15 August 2025, 09:00 - 10:00, Online
Dr Christo Rautenbach's talk explored the intersection of coastal dynamics, climate adaptation, and hydrological planning. He will share insights from his recent paper on wave set-up in constricted estuaries, discuss their nationwide work through the Future Coasts Aotearoa programme, and unpack how these ideas are being translated into practice through hydrology and flood planning in the Waikato New Zealand. Whether you’re interested in estuarine processes, climate resilience, or catchment-scale water management, this talk brings research and real-world implementation together. Dr Rautenbach will draw on the parallels between South Africa and New Zealand based on some of his interdisciplinary research looking at weather salience. Dr Rautenbach is a Research Associate with the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research (CMR) and is affiliated with the Waikato Regional Council, New Zealand.
Attendees were encouraged to explore Future Coasts Aotearoa, a serious game developed to engage users with coastal adaptation challenges: https://niwa.co.nz/hazards/future-coasts-aotearoa
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Prof Larry Swatuk
Wetland Offsetting as a Policy Tool for Sustainable Wetland Management: Case Study of the Grand River Watershed, Ontario, Canada
10 July 2025, 13:00 - 14:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
Wetlands are crucial ecosystems that sustain biodiversity, regulate water resources, and provide essential services. Functioning as the "kidneys of the biosphere," they purify contaminants and maintain water quality. However, land conversion for industrial, residential, and farmland development continues to threaten wetland sustainability worldwide. In this talk, he has presented his paper, which evaluates the viability of wetland offsetting as a tool for promoting sustainable wetland management and conservation in the Grand River Watershed in southern Ontario, Canada. It theorizes that as part of a collaborative governance framework, wetland offsetting can function as a government-regulated mechanism that unites all stakeholders and/or enables a satisfactory compromise in favour of sustainability.
Larry Swatuk is Emeritus Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also Extraordinary Professor in the Institute for Water Studies, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; External Researcher, Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, Germany; and Vice-President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. Prior to joining Waterloo, Swatuk spent 11 years at the University of Botswana – 7 years on main campus in the capital city of Gaborone and 4 years as Associate Professor of Natural Resources Governance at the Okavango Research Institute in Maun, Botswana.
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Belinda Clark
World Environment Day: Waste minimisation and management for a climate resilient future
02 June 2025, 13:00 - 14:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
A Climate Resilient Development Strategy Framework and Action Plan for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro has recently been finalised. Development of the Strategy and Action Plan was a public-driven process, integrating contributions from stakeholders and communities from various sectors and across places. The Strategy Framework includes a Vision, 8 resilience outcomes that the Strategy Framework and Action Plan aim to achieve, and 5 Strategic Interventions.
Improving waste management, minimising waste to landfill, and creating opportunities from waste were consistently raised as priorities by communities and stakeholders in engagements. This was reflected in the Vision which included the word ‘clean’ as a qualifier of a thriving climate resilient Metro. The impact of waste on natural environments, open spaces and people’s health and well-being, and as a contributor to the severity of flooding impacts is evident in many areas.
Urgent action at a strategic level, and in the most vulnerable areas to address waste is urgently required. The need for everyone to do their bit in CRD planning and implementation is clear, especially in a resource-constrained system. The value of partnerships and support networks in taking actions forward cannot be underestimated. The CRD process started to identify ‘waste actors’ working in the metro, at various scales, including community-based organisations, business and local government. Continued work is needed to connect these collective efforts, and to build awareness and recognition of positive action towards a common goal. A collaborative presentation will share the work of representatives of these organisations, with messages of perseverance and opportunity.
The presentation was collaborative, inclusive of community recyclers, an NPO working with recycling and food security in education, the NMB Waste Sub-Directorate and representatives of the CRD consultant team. (Helenvale Recyclers. Giving Them Wings Foundation: NPO focused on food security and recycling in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Founded in 2014 by Siya Ntsumpa, the organisation has ballooned to become one of the NMB’s most active environmental organisations servicing township schools. NMB Waste Sub-Directorate: Planning section. CRD team – 8 independent consultants working under Wilderness Foundation Africa in a PCC-initiated process to develop the CRD Framework and Action Plan).
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Samantha Grusd and Ms Darcie Anderson
Introduction to Marine Ecosystem Modelling and the Ecopath with Ecosim (EWE) and Ecospace Modelling Approach
26 May 2025, 09:00 - 12:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
Ecosystem modelling seeks to understand and quantify ecosystems and simulate potential responses to scenarios of various environmental and human pressures. Ecosystem models are designed and utilized for three core purposes: describing and understanding the current ecosystem, forecasting and hindcasting scenarios, and supporting management decision making. This seminar will introduce marine ecosystem modelling and principles behind them, with a specific focus on the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) and Ecospace modelling framework.
EwE is a quantitative end-to-end ecosystem modelling approach which represents trophic flows between functional groups in an ecosystem to describe and understand modelled ecosystems. The 3 core components of EwE are: Ecopath – a static, mass balanced snapshot which can be used to understand the structure and function of whole ecosystems; Ecosim – a time dynamic simulation model, which can be used to explore policy, fishing and environmental stressor impacts; and Ecospace – a spatially and temporally dynamic and can be used to understand the spatial structure of ecosystems, and the impacts of spatially variable pressures such as placement of MPA’s, fishing pressure, and ocean warming.
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Mfundo Bizani and Dr Phumlile Cotiyane-Pondo
International Day for Biodiversity - Showcasing Plankton Diversity and Community Dynamics within Algoa Bay
23 May 2025, 09:00 - 10:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
Marine phytoplankton and zooplankton are fundamental and form the basis of the ocean’s food web. Plankton biodiversity is essential for ecosystem health and enables the various ecosystem services provided by coastal ecosystems. Shifts in phytoplankton community structure have significant implications on higher trophic levels. Zooplankton is one of the highly diverse and critical components of aquatic systems as it includes holoplanktonic (spend their entire life as planktonic) and meroplanktonic (spend part of their life as planktonic) organisms. Zooplankton functional and species diversity are key indicators of change in coastal ecosystems given their high sensitivity to environmental change; and because they are not commercially harvested; changes to their abundance and distribution can be attributed to environmental change. Increased anthropogenic pressures such nutrient loadings and warming events alter the natural oscillations and species distribution of zooplankton and ultimately impacting the entire ecosystem. This talk drew from an ongoing SAEON Elwandle Node’s Pelagic Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research (PELTER) monitoring programme and highlights zooplankton diversity, biodiversity hotspots and associated trends.
Dr Mfundo Bizani (Zooplankton Ecologist). – My primary research interests are in coastal zooplankton ecology, with specific interest in community composition of mesozooplankton dynamics and how they respond to different ocean features linked climate change. I am also involved in SAEON Elwandle Node’s pelagic ecosystem long-term ecological research (PELTER).
Dr Phumlile Cotiyane-Pondo (Phytoplankton Ecologist) – is a marine phytoplankton ecologist at the NRF-SAEON Elwandle Coastal Node. His research focus includes estuarine and coastal phytoplankton, and marine benthic diatoms, investigating the aspects of community composition, diversity and biogeography. He is involved in Elwandle Node’s pelagic ecosystem long-term ecological research (PELTER).
The presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of the presentation.
Dr Judy Mann-Lang and Dr Bruce Mann
20 May 2025, 09:00 - 10:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
TOPIC 1: Communicating for Marine Conservation – Lessons from South Africa
People are at the heart of marine conservation – they are our biggest challenge and our most powerful solution. Protecting the ocean is one of the most serious challenges facing humanity today. We have much of the science, and we know many of the solutions, what we need is a deeper understanding of people’s connections to the ocean, how this influences the decisions that they make, and how to communicate more effectively to inspire positive action. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in marine education, science communication, culture and behaviour change research, she shared some of the lessons that they had learnt about effective communication to inspire ocean care in an African context.
Dr. Judy Mann-Lang is passionate about the oceans, and inspiring people to care for nature. Throughout her career she has combined these two passions through education and training, management, leadership and research. After 30 years at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), she is now building the new People and Ocean Unit for the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation. She holds degrees in Ichthyology (MSc), Business Administration (BTech) and a PhD from the University of Queensland. With the realization that without a better understanding of people we are unlikely to solve our conservation challenges, she shifted her research focus from fish to people and she now studies communication, behaviour change, socio-cultural aspects of learning and marine protected areas, in a uniquely African context. She started Marine Protected Areas Day and the African Penguin NotOnOurWatch campaign. In 1999 she co-founded the South African Marine and Coastal Educators Network (MCEN). She serves on numerous international boards and committees and serves on the Ocean Decade Working Group 10 and the first IUCN Behaviour Change Task Team. Human behaviour fascinates her and getting out into nature keeps her inspired. Supporting the next generation of marine conservationists is now her focus.
TOPIC 2: Establishment and monitoring of the Pondoland Marine Protected Area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
The Pondoland coast between Port Edward and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape was identified as an important gap in the network of marine protected areas (MPAs) found around the South African coast during the 1990s. Following a two-year marine biodiversity survey conducted between 2002-2003, the Pondoland MPA was proclaimed in June 2004. Following this, a long-term monitoring project was established in 2006 to monitor the effectiveness of the MPA in protecting offshore reef fish. This talk will share some of the results and experiences of this monitoring project over the past 16 years (2006-2021).
Dr. Bruce Mann was employed as a research scientist at the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban, South Africa from 1992 to 2022 (30 years). He retired in March 2023. His research focused on the biology and management of marine linefish (i.e. fish caught by hook and line), including the importance of MPAs as a management tool. He is a keen angler and diver and is passionate about the conservation of South Africa’s marine fish species.
Dr Judy Mann-Lang's presentation is available via this link.
Dr Bruce Mann's presentation is available via this link.
Please click here to access the recording.
Prof Janine Adams
The endangered seagrass Zostera capensis from science to management
05 March 2025, 12:00 - 13:00, Online and Venue (Hybrid event)
The endangered Zostera capensis is found in 37 South African estuaries that range from systems permanently open to the sea to estuaries that close. The dynamic estuary environment affects the distribution, growth and recovery of seagrass from multiple stressors. Estuary type accounts for the variability in extent of seagrass habitat. The ecological importance of Zostera capensis has been recognized through the multitude of ecosystem services it provides including the provision of nursery habitats, maintaining biodiversity, nutrient cycling and sediment stabilisation. Seagrasses are also effective carbon sinks, playing important roles in mitigating climate change. However, limited intertidal habitat and coastal development result in numerous pressures. This talk highlighted the transfer of knowledge and science to action activities related to this keystone species. It shows how research is integrated in Estuary Management Plans, Environmental Flow Assessments and the National Biodiversity Assessment.
Janine Adams is a distinguished professor at the Nelson Mandela University, Deputy Director of the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research and a NRF South African Research Chair in Shallow Water Ecosystems. Investigating blue carbon ecosystems and responses to climate change, her research successfully links science, policy and management through extensive collaboration and networking.
Prof Janine Adam's presentation is available via this link. Please click here to access the recording of her presentation.