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.
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.
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. Our work aims to better our understanding of the underwater world through 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.
Our work contributes towards the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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.
Mark is a commercial SCUBA diver and marine scientist, currently working on a Masters degree focused on the complex relationships between marine parasites and their hosts. He has experience in animal health, microscopy and marine diseases, with a particular interest in sharks. Mark prefers to be in the water, and also volunteers at the Two Oceans Aquarium as a diver.
Dani says one of the best parts of being in the ocean is that you will always see something new. This is one classroom you can never be bored in. She loves seeing peoples' eyes light up when showing them things they have only been able to see on TV or in textbooks!
"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..."
“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...”
"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.”
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I have been lucky enough to learn about, explore, and apply marine research techniques in the bay almost every day. Continue reading to hear all about my first two weeks with Cape RADD.
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+27 62 331 7530
