Science
Southern Right Whales..gentle giants of the ocean
The southern right whale, Eubalaena australis, is amongst the largest of the four baleen whales that come close inshore on the southern African...
Fryer’s Cove wines… sipping the sea on the West Coast
Tasting the wine..On the waterfront in a derelict old crayfish factory right at the seaside in the bay, you will find a tiny...
Elusive leopard kill 33 penguins at Stony Point
Betties Bays’ elusive but well-loved leopard created havoc at the African penguin colony at Stony Point last week. Social media buzzed with excitement...
Clouds that look like ocean waves. What is it?
Van Gogh clouds! Like breaking ocean waves.
They are called Kelvin Helmholzt clouds, aka billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds
It’s widely...
Beachcomber for a day
One of the chief delights of living on the whale coast is that there is always an excuse to go rambling along the...
Marine Tourism
Virga is rain that does not reach the ground
The word virga is derived from Latin meaning “twig” or “branch”.
We’ve all seen virga, but maybe not known what it’s called. Virga is...
Why do stars twinkle ?
Stars twinkle. Planets shine steadily. Why?
Stars twinkle (scintillate) because they’re so far away from Earth that, even through large telescopes, they appear only...
Humpback Whale flippers solve helicopter air flow problems
We've all seen movies of humpback whales playing in the sea. The most obvious feature is a nice symmetrical tail slapping the water...
Billions of Blue Jellyfish Wash Up on American Beaches during 2015
The animals known as "by-the-wind sailors" stay out on the open ocean—until the winds change
In recent weeks, about a billion jellyfish-like "purple sailors"...
Red Tide, Blue Tide: Bioluminescence in the Ocean
Red tides, which often contain harmful algal blooms , are caused by chemical reactions that occur between algae and other substances.
Red by day, blue...
