My Octopus Teacher

A beautiful story of an extraordinary friendship

https://www.ecowatch.com/my-oc…ebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

‘My Octopus Teacher’ Stuns Audiences, Reinforces Power of Nature

Tiffany Duong

Sep. 24, 2020 11:33AM ESTANIMALS

In 'My Octopus Teacher,' Craig Foster becomes fascinated with an octopus and visits her for hundreds of days in a row. Netflix

In his latest documentary, My Octopus Teacher, free diver and filmmaker Craig Foster tells a unique story about his friendship and bond with an octopus in a kelp forest in Cape Town, South Africa. It's been labeled "the love story that we need right now" by The Cut.

As noted by CNN, the film follows Foster as he battles career exhaustion and depression by going for daily swims in the frigid South African coast.

He becomes fixated upon a common octopus, freediving daily to visit and observe her in her natural habitat. He's amazed by her ability to find clever ways to evade predators and adapt to her environment.

"Before the viewer's eyes, the octopus adapts her crab-hunting strategy for lobster, evades a pyjama shark by climbing onto its back, shape-shifts to resemble seaweed and rocks, and otherwise applies her intelligence and creativity to survive," the NewScientist observed.

Foster's fascination and curiosity with her are matched by hers with him, according to a review byVulture. The unlikely relationship between them is a mentorship on the fragility of life and man's connection to nature, reported The Cut. Their interaction culminates when the octopus swims up to Foster and lands on his chest, in a display of inter-species connection, the review said.

Throughout the film, Foster tracks the octopus' movements and thereby transports viewers into the octopus' natural world and point of view in a way that has rarely been done before, reported BizNews. It brings a "level of consciousness few have experienced before him" to the life of the cephalopod, and some celebrities have vowed never to eat octopus again after watching it, according to the news report and USA Today.

"If you gain the trust of that animal over a period of months, it will actually ignore you to a certain degree and carry on with its normal life, and allow you to step inside its secret world," Foster told CNN. "The octopus showed me many behaviors that were completely new to science because this animal trusted me."

Foster told CNN that the greatest lesson the octopus taught him is that humans are part of the natural world and not simply visitors.

The film was backed by the Sea Change Project, an NGO Foster co-founded to create awareness about the South African sea forest. The ecosystem stretches for 800 miles along the coasts of Namibia and South Africa, according to VOA News.

"Our group, our whole idea is to try and get this great African sea forest, kind of the home of the octopus teacher, recognized as a global icon, like the Serengeti or the Great barrier reef, because nobody really knows about it and no one realizes just how important this ecosystem is in terms ofbiodiversity, in terms of how important it is for the planet," Foster said, reported BizNews. "People have sort of forgotten that the biodiversity of nature is our life support system."

Several international publications have listed My Octopus Teacher as a must-see, including The Washington Post, Hollywood reviews, and even scientific articles, according to BizNews. It has already won several prestigious awards, including best feature at the EarthX Film Festival.

• You're Not So Different From an Octopus: Rethinking Our ... ›

The "Cape of Storms" lives up to its name

https://www.enca.com/news/extr…ted-continue-western-cape

Extreme weather conditions expected to continue in Western Cape

Tuesday 14 July 2020 - 10:50am

CAPE TOWN - Extreme weather conditions are expected to continue in the Western Cape on Tuesday. Intense winds, sea swells and even snow are anticipated.

READ: Cold front hits Cape Town

Intense winds, sea swells and even snow is anticipated. Western Cape residents not only have to ride out an extreme storm, they have to do so in the dark due to load-shedding. The freezing weather has resulted in flooding in several informal settlements in Cape Town. The City’s Disaster and Risk Management Centre says it will deal with the aftermath of the storm.

Sea Point, Promenade. Western Cape Storm. #eNCA pic.twitter.com/0A47HD9dII

— Nobesuthu Hejana

(@Nobesutu_Hejana) July 13, 2020

eNCA

Related - Cape Storms - PICTURES FROM THE FIELD - 13 July 2020

I get suspicious when animals start doing unusual things such as this shark hunting the whale. Often this is because of the unavailability of its usual food sources. That's why I suspect fish shortages. Of course maybe the shark just developed a taste for whale. Great Whites along the Cape coast also hunt seals, as 'Helen' is doing in the picture below, as well as seabirds. They are famous for that spectacular breaching technique.

It is time for the Chinese (and other Asian nations) to drop their “traditional medicine” superstitions. It has no grounds and are destroying the wildlife of Africa and Asia.

https://ewn.co.za/2020/07/10/i…trafficking-booms-un-says

ILLEGAL IVORY TRADE SHRINKS WHILE PANGOLIN TRAFFICKING BOOMS, UN SAYS

National bans on selling ivory, particularly China’s in 2017, appear to have helped further erode ivory trafficking after it peaked around 2011-2013.

FILE: A pangolin. Picture: AFP

Reuters | 10 July 2020

VIENNA – The illegal global trade in ivory has shrunk while the trafficking of pangolins has soared, a UN report on wildlife crime based on four years’ data said on Friday.

National bans on selling ivory, particularly China’s in 2017, appear to have helped further erode ivory trafficking after it peaked around 2011-2013, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its World Wildlife Crime Report, which was last published in 2016. At the same time, the trafficking of pangolins - a reclusive, nocturnal mammal covered in scales that are used in traditional Chinese medicine, has surged, the UNODC said.

“The World Wildlife Crime Report 2020 has some good news and some bad news,” UNODC research chief Angela Me told Reuters. “We see some shrinking in some markets, particularly the ivory and the rhino (horn) market, but we actually see huge increases in other markets, like the market of illicit trafficking of pangolins, in European eels but also in tiger parts and also in rosewood,” she added.

The causes of these shifts are likely multiple and the UNODC was guarded in identifying the forces behind illegal trades that are opaque by definition, often involving poaching in Africa and smuggling to Asia, where China is the biggest market.

For ivory, a supply glut combined with a shift in attitudes because of the Chinese and other bans may be among the factors that contributed to the fall in poaching and prices, the UNODC said, adding that the price of illegal ivory in China fell by more than half between 2014 and 2018.

The UNODC estimates the annual income generated by ivory trafficking between 2016 and 2018 at $400 million. Seizures of pangolin scales, mainly sourced in Africa, increased tenfold between 2014 and 2018 as trafficking moved away from pangolin meat, which was mainly seized in Asia.

In that time 185 tons of scales were seized, for which roughly 370,000 animals would have been killed, the UNODC said. “They are now arguably the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world,” it said of the scaly creatures.

A question must be asked. Why would a shark hunt a whale? Could it be because fish stocks have become so depleted due to overfishing that the shark is forced to make this move?

https://ewn.co.za/2020/07/10/g…ly-killing-humpback-whale

GREAT WHITE NAMED HELEN FILMED, FOR 1ST TIME EVER, STRATEGICALLY KILLING A WHALE

Shark expert Ryan Johnson recounts, in detail, the strategic way a Great White went about killing a whale 10 times its size.

Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) hunting near Cape Town, South Africa.

Kabous le Roux | 10 July 2020

In recent months, we’ve seen reports of orcas moving into False Bay to, possibly, target Great White sharks.

Sharks are, usually, apex predators. [Hano - Actually, in recent times, Orcas (Killer Whales) have been documented as the ocean's top predators. They hunt from fish to seals, penguins and other seabirds on the surface, other whales and dolphins as well as sharks. A few years ago there was a spate of dead sharks washing up on South African Southern Cape coast beaches. All had only their livers removed. First, poaching was considered but it turned out to be Orcas. The liver was a delicacy for them. The rest of the shark was discarded. They're intelligence and cunning has earned them the nickname "Wolves of the sea" and they certainly live up to it]

Some feed on animals as large as whales, but this has never been captured on video – until now.

Mossel Bay-based National Geographic shark expert Ryan Johnson recently shot astounding footage of a shark slowly and deliberately attacking a humpback whale many times her size. The resulting documentary forms part of National Geographic’s “Shark Fest”, currently on in South Africa and some other parts of the world.

Johnson – a New Zealander - moved to South Africa in 1999 to observe sharks and to study marine biology. “It was a dream for kids in New Zealand to be able to go to Africa and study the wildlife and animals,” says Johnson.

“South Africa has been everything to me. “You can have adventures here with animals that you can’t have anywhere else in the world. “A lot of countries don’t make space for their big, charismatic predators, but South Africa’s government has been protecting species like great whites for the best part of 30 years now.”

Related article: [PICS] 7 Orcas – including 2 babies – spotted hunting in Cape Town’s False Bay                                                                     

Refilwe Moloto interviewed Johnson about what he witnessed and filmed, and the significance thereof.

It [great whites completely disappearing after orca attacks] first came to light in 1992 in California… A group of orcas killed one Great White shark, massively impacting on the entire population that dispersed and disappeared. They didn’t see another Great White for a year! That’s what seems to have happened in South Africa for the past three years…

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

It’s had a huge impact on the cage diving industry… but I don’t think it’s had a huge impact on the overall population of Great Whites. They just dispersed to be a bit safer from the orcas.

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

Great White sharks love eating whales – they scavenge off the carcasses…

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

… the whale was still very much alive. Five minutes later, a big Great White shark I tagged four years earlier – her name is Helen – turned up. Over the course of 50 minutes, I watched an intelligent, curious predator flipping the book and attacking a humpback whale. She went about it strategically… she latched onto its head, pulled it under the water, and drowned it! [Hano - Drowning is a common Orca hunting method as well]

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

Helen was named after Helen Suzman…[Hano - She was a well known anti-apartheid activist]

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

There were no other sharks. It was her alone. She was about four metres, but the whale was about nine metres and weighed 10 times more than her…

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

She targeted the tail, the skinny part because that’s where she could get her mouth all the way around. She started biting on that and opened a blood vein. The whale started bleeding, and then she backed off… When it became weak it latched on to its head… and overcame it by drowning it… It was tragic but special to watch.

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

This has never been seen before! A Great White shark hunting a massive whale! … [Yet] She looked experienced; like she’s done it before…

— Ryan Johnson, marine biologist

This article first appeared on CapeTalk :

Great White named Helen filmed, for 1st time ever, strategically killing a whale