Join our Field Course!

Cape RADD facilitates SCUBA and freediving training courses for individuals who want to learn more about the marine environment, conservation and research through hands on field experience and diver development. Our courses include training in multiple data collection and field operation techniques, and theoretical workshops and presentations from field biologists and dive experts.

Find out more!

Conservation

Our love and passion for the oceans drives our desire to conserve the underwater environment so that future generations can experience the same wonder that we have discovered.

Research

An intense curiosity for understanding the inner workings of our ecosystem has led us down a path of academia. We study our oceans to better understand how to conserve them.

Adventure

Above all else, we are driven by excitement and thrill. There is no better way to stimulate passion than to fill our days with adventure.

Cape RADD is a marine field station that serves as a platform for researchers in the False Bay area of Cape Town. We specialise in projects that monitor and investigate the biodiversity of a global hotspot home to more than 3500 endemic marine species. We aim to better understand our world by using a variety of techniques including transects, quadrats, remote underwater video and mark-recapture, with a particular focus on approaches that utilise citizen science. At the core of our values is passing on our expertise to early career scientists and those with a passion for the ocean.

Merchandise

Dive Gear

Cape RADD Hooded Poncho-Towel

Hooded microfibre poncho-towel.

Hats

Cape RADD Cap

Navy cap with embroidered Cape RADD logo.

Shirts

Cape RADD T-Shirt

White Cape RADD T-Shirt with navy printed logo on front and back.

Meet the team

Dylan Irion

Course Director

Dylan is a marine scientist and Save Our Seas Foundation project leader, working towards a PhD that aims to unravel the drivers of white shark population dynamics in South Africa. He is a passionate freediver and SCUBA diver, and volunteers as a Sea Rescue crew member.

Mike Barron

Course Director

Mike is a marine biologist and conservationist and a PADI master scuba diver instructor. He has travelled the world diving and experiencing many ecosystems and their inhabitants. His main interests lie in the field of inter-specific animal behaviour and he has worked on shark deterrents using killer whale stimuli.

Jessica-Jade Barron

Jessie has always been a wildlife lover and manages the social media platforms for Cape RADD. She is also a budding photographer, freediver and hiker, and is on hand for student needs - ready to assist with trips, travel and anything else you might need whilst on the field course with us.

Gareth Fee

Gaz is a Marine Biologist, PADI Dive master and budding underwater photographer. He has a passion for the underwater world and the diverse forms of life within it. He is currently completing his Honours degree at the University of Cape Town studying Octopus behaviour.

What our students say

Amanda Gardiner

University of Washington

"I had never actually been out in the field doing field research. I had done stuff in labs and in classes, but I never had hands on experience, so I saw the Cape RADD field course as a perfect opportunity not only to dive but to actually learn how to take data in the field, learn how to ID animals. It turned out to be all of that and so much more... We got to dive a variety of environments, reef to kelp forests to urchin barrens...
It was so amazing because every day I got in the water, I just knew that was what I wanted to do, I just got happier everyday that I went diving..."

Courtney Luing

Univeristy of Wisconsin

“I found out about this course through my advisor and I am so happy that I did because I really enjoyed it...
I got to hone in on my SCUBA diving skills and I got to learn a lot about researching in the field...”

Anne-Sophie Roux

My Coral Garden

"I wanted to come to Cape RADD to gain more experience in marine sampling techniques, and to discover new ecosystems that I didn’t know anything about and improve my diving skills. I think its mission accomplished for it all.
I would advise anyone to come to Cape RADD.”