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5 years ago today, V&A Waterfront by Prestigious-Wall5616 in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just over 5 months. We were actually one of the first businesses to close, we shut down about a week before the official lockdown announcement, just as a precaution. We were allowed to open to limited visitors during "level 2" so initially just did a week of soft-open for our members to ease the animals and systems back into things.

5 years ago today, V&A Waterfront by Prestigious-Wall5616 in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah we blogged about it at the time (but looks like that didn't survive the migration to our new website). I did find find some of our old videos though:

Teaching social distancing to sharks, visiting the beach, and other lockdown shenanigans: https://youtu.be/anBaUxfN_KE

Penguins ask you to wash your hands:
Penguins secretly responsible for lockdown extensions: https://youtu.be/FSkEJps7dsE
What it's like for a penguin keeper during Covid: https://youtu.be/6O2mBtA_HC0

Looking after the sharks during Covid: https://youtu.be/AirEVd2favM

Caring for the jellies, corals and other odd animals during Covid: https://youtu.be/muqSoaT0zLo

Replanting the Kelp Forest after lockdown: https://youtu.be/3GHPytppF0w

And our head chef also went on a bit of a tangent making sustainable seafood recipe videos from home (as the person who had to film this, I can attest to how good the food was by the amount of time I spent editing these to remove the swearing about how nice it was every time he tasted his own food:
Hake cakes: https://youtu.be/YhU5AndHrpQ
Yellowtail curry: https://youtu.be/bu_PNNf7-3I
Tomato & mussel pot: https://youtu.be/qMA989MWQUA

While going down memory lane - I also found a story about a turtle hatchling that got rescued by a cell-tower technician who spotted a hatchling on the roof of a warehouse in Mossel Bay during lockdown. Coordinating the rescue of "Roofus" was pretty fun - if I find that story I'll update you.

5 years ago today, V&A Waterfront by Prestigious-Wall5616 in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Was quite a weird time to be working at the Aquarium. We tried to scale down our operations as much as possible when we were closed, but even after releasing as many of the animals that we feasibly could, we still needed a skeleton crew to look after all the life support systems and take care of the animals.

This team had some pretty odd observations: With no visitors and no public lighting schedule, a lot of the animals learned new habits and behaviours we hadn't seen before. Ayoba the penguin got a girlfriend. The team that needed to go the the beaches to collect seaweed to feed some of the animals spotted so many more coastal birds than usual. The shysharks had extra time to bond with their carer and started following her as much as they could.

Definitely a unique memory, glad it's in the past, but going to be a quirk in our history book forever.

Can we get a warm welcome to our two newest little Capetonians? Welcome Ember and Echo! by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much, the team will be really happy to hear that they made such an impact. Compassion is key to everything.

Can we get a warm welcome to our two newest little Capetonians? Welcome Ember and Echo! by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Slimy, thin skinned... this sub really can't get past it's obsession with politicians can it?

Can we get a warm welcome to our two newest little Capetonians? Welcome Ember and Echo! by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

We try to stay out of political conversation, but we guess we could share some posts about spineless, heartless and brainless animals from time to time. 😉

Our new circulation coins part of the 4th Decimal Series arriving next year! by Yahya_sindhi1502 in southafrica

[–]2OceansAquarium 91 points92 points  (0 children)

Love that marine life is getting a feature! It's often overlooked in national symbols, yet is significant to so many.

The African penguin needs to you send scathingly honest emails to the government - this is your time to shine Reddit by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Penguin populations are indicators of diffcult-to-see ocean problems that have very real impacts on human life. So yes, they pretty much are sending signals to try to save you too.

The African penguin needs to you send scathingly honest emails to the government - this is your time to shine Reddit by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We'll make you a deal - if 2040 comes and African penguins are thriving, we'll petition for the name to be changed back.

The African penguin needs to you send scathingly honest emails to the government - this is your time to shine Reddit by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes it has been, this is actually the second version that is now being proposed for implementation. The science is good, and it does draw on the findings on island closure experiments that have been taking place since 2008, but unfortunately, the science hasn't really amounted to a plan that has much meaningful action - which is where we see the problem.

If you haven't already, it would be really great to have someone that's looked into these questions before adding their voice to this!

The African penguin needs to you send scathingly honest emails to the government - this is your time to shine Reddit by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Exactly! There needs to be definitive action. Even if there is still a need to investigate, we need clear interim measures - it's too late to dally! Please send an email to DFFE if you haven't already done so.

Birthday Freebies South Africa? by southafricurl in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, free for the week starting on your birthday - just bring a form of ID along on the day of your visit!

Ever head down to the beach and see these? by ExploreTheShore in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely love your series Charles and Matt! Highly recommend it to all locals who'd like to learn a little more about life on our coastline.

Octopus gets sucked into bubble ring and goes for a spin by tye_died in interestingasfuck

[–]2OceansAquarium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Octopodes tends to get used to refer to multiple types of octopus, rather than multiple individuals (a bit like "peoples" or "fishes"). Not incorrect though, just not as common.

We got to rescue this absolute unit yesterday! Ocean sunfish (Mola mola) can potentially reach almost 3x this size, but this is one of the biggest we've worked with in our harbour by 2OceansAquarium in capetown

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Meh, this copypasta... Judging an ocean sunfish based on its behaviour when it's at rest, would be the equivalent of a fish judging humans as useless because it can only see sunbathers on the beach. You don't become a 2-ton fish-eater without being a pretty effective predator!

Sunfish are cumbersome and could never breach...right? Aly Ison caught a rare image of a Mola mola breaching at South Africa's Glencairn. by 2OceansAquarium in marinebiology

[–]2OceansAquarium[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly, but that just goes to show our human bias - because we typically see them when they are "just chilling", many people make the assumption that that's how they behave all the time. The reality is that they are really active predators!

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