Dyer Island Conservation Trust

DEEP Roughing It Out

Four of our Dyer Island Conservation Trust Environmental Education Programme (DEEP) alumni students were selected to join the children’s reality series Roughing It Out (SABC 2). In the series, contestants are removed from the comfort of urban living and immersed into nature.  A series of adrenalin-fuelled eco-challenges test their mental and physical skills. Dyer Island Conservation Trust educator Pinkey Ngewu, took [...]

Storm water stencils and statistics in Gansbaai

Efforts to stem the tide of marine pollution are taking place in Gansbaai, Western Cape, South Africa. The Overstrand Municipality is working in partnership with Marine Dynamics and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust to prevent waste from reaching the ocean. Councillor Riana de Coning and Overstrand Municipality Gansbaai Manager Francois Myburgh met with the Trust representatives Pinkey Ngewu and Brenda du [...]

Taurus Cape Kelp donates to DEEP

Taurus Cape Kelp is committed to helping the local community, through job creation as well as financial support of several local schools and initiatives. It was with this in mind that Taurus donated R10 000 to the Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s Environmental Education Programme (known as DEEP). Led by Trust educator Pinkey Ngewu, the programme is focused on learners in Masakhane, with [...]

Marine Month Competition Winners 2019

In its fourth year, the Marine Month competition run by the Dyer Island Conservation Trust with eco-tourism partners Marine Dynamics & Dyer Island Cruises, and with the support of conservation partners, the Overstrand Municipality, Birdlife Overberg and the Department of Environmental Affairs, Fisheries and Forestry (DEFF), reached 28 schools in the Overstrand area. This campaign, held every October, aims to raise [...]

Marine Evening: Clean Marine

Clean Marine October’s marine evening was a colourful mixture of different topics and speakers. Brenda du Toit, of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, provided insight about how marine debris occurs and its consequences such as entanglement or death of marine life found in the area. Brenda emphasised that it is up to everyone to make a difference. In the course of [...]

Southern African Shark and Ray Symposium 2019

SA Shark & Ray Symposium The DICT, Shark biologists Alison Towner, Ralph Watson, and Toby Rogers attended the Southern African Shark and Ray Symposium hosted by the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town 7-10th October. Alison presented one of her PhD chapters on the ecological changes post-Orca predation of white sharks in Gansbaai. This was the fifth symposium Alison has attended. The [...]

MARINE POLLUTION ROADSHOW

August 20, 2019 Dyer Island Conservation Trust The Dyer Island Conservation Trust joined John Kieser from Plastics ǀ SA on his trip to hand out materials required for the International Coastal Clean Up. International Coastal Clean Up Day is on the 21st September and various organisations around the world participate. This is in fact John’s 25th clean up that he has [...]

GLOBAL SPATIAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF SHARKS UNDER THE FOOTPRINT OF FISHERIES

July 25, 2019 Dyer Island Conservation Trust The Dyer Island Conservation Trust’s shark biologists Alison Towner and Oliver Jewell are co-authors on a ground-breaking new study published in the science journal Nature. The work confirms that sharks have very limited spatial refuge from industrial longline fisheries in open oceans, worldwide. This is one of the most substantial collaborative datasets between shark [...]

SEABIRDS – THE CANARIES IN THE COAL MINE

June 21, 2019 Dyer Island Conservation Trust A canary in a coal mine is an advanced warning of some danger. The metaphor originates from the times when miners used to carry caged canaries while at work; if there was any methane or carbon monoxide in the mine, the canary would die before the levels of the gas reached those hazardous to [...]