2022 – what a year! We’ve felt many highs and lows as part of the Cape Town community: the joyous return of tourism and booming business, frustration with load-shedding and pollution of our ocean, and the enduring love we share for our natural world. It has been a year of recovery and growth, one that has encouraged us to look towards the future at the Two Oceans Aquarium and our Foundation. So, let’s see the highlights that shaped our past year: 

Stingray giving birth!

In January, an eagle ray giving birth at the Two Oceans Aquarium took the world by storm. Over 47 million people watched this special moment on our Facebook and YouTube channels, and countless people learned that their high school teachers lied to them - some fish can give birth to live young!

An exciting year for the Turtle Conservation Centre

2022 was a bumper year for the Turtle Conservation Centre – 114 rehabilitated sea turtles were successfully released into the wild! This included 107 hatchlings, some released off of Cape Point and others in the warm waters of Kwa-Zulu Natal in partnership with uShaka Marine World, as well as seven larger juvenile and sub-adult turtles (some of whom you've been following). All of this was made possible by our incredible partners in conservation - Consol Glass, Oceans Alive, John Dory's Zero Waste Initiative, Greenfish, Cape Exotic Animal Hospital, and the many people and organisations that supported this work during the year.

The year kicked off with the release of Geri the three-flippered turtle and 44 hatchlings that were rescued in 2021. The public also met Nobomvu, a large rescued loggerhead turtle for the first time (she's still undergoing rehabilitation with our Foundation).

You also met Pan, Turbo, Kijani and other juveniles with interesting rehabilitation stories. Pan, Donny and Caddy were released in a collaborative effort between the Two Oceans Aquarium, Bayworld, and uShaka Marine World - you can follow the satellite tags of these turtles here.

Finally, we wrapped up the year with the release of our final 69 hatchlings and a couple of larger turtles, including Turbo who is currently exploring the West Coast while carrying a satellite tracker.

One of the main highlights of 2022 is that Bob, our famous green turtle resident of almost eight years, is finally on the path to release. Bob was initially believed to be unreleasable, as his neurological injuries (a result of ingesting plastic pollution) kept him from carrying out the natural behaviours needed to survive in the wild. But, after years of intensive enrichment and behavioural therapies, Bob is due for a potential release in early 2023! Help us #ProtectBobsHome - let's keep human-made hazards, like plastic pollution, out of the ocean!

Dive School receives highest rating

2022 was a very big year for our Dive School! Not only were we rated a PADI Five Star Dive Centre (the highest possible rating under PADI), but we were also certified as a PADI Freediving Centre. This means you can do ALL your certified recreational diving training with the Aquarium team! Even newcomers to the hobby can jump straight into a PADI Open Water Diver or Freediver course, and experienced divers can up their game with several advanced courses!

Great partners make diving experiences at the Aquarium possible - thank you Reef Wetsuits for keeping us warm and protected, and Bright Weights for giving us that perfect trim and buoyancy!

Ocean education excellence

The Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation reached 59 597 children through its educational programmes this year. These include classroom lessons at the Aquarium, outreach lessons, mobile educational puppet shows, courses, and more. 

Many children enhanced their ocean knowledge through exciting courses. For hundreds of these children, full sponsorship was made possible by some of our amazing partners in education: A.V.I., De Beers Marine, DHL, and SPAR. These courses ranged from the ever-popular Young Biologist Course for Grade 10 learners, to bespoke courses in partnership with other local non-profits.

The Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation's outreach teams were ubiquitous across Cape Town. Oceans in Motion teacher Thabo shared the love of marine life with his mobile aquarium, our mobile puppet show visited an ECD centre near you, and Smart Living educator Anzio taught lessons in sustainability to kids of all ages.

To top it all off: More children than ever before took Marine Sciences as an official school subject (and even more will be taking it in 2023)!

Our community

Of course, this year wouldn’t have meant anything without you. We are incredibly proud of our extended Aquarium family throughout Cape Town – the hundreds of people who turned out in force to attend our Trash Bash beach clean-ups, the schools and hospitals we got to shared Mandela Day with, eager ocean treasure hunters who joined us for Marine Protected Areas Day, and the waddlers who joined in to make a loud squawk of awareness for the plight of the African penguin - #NotOnOurWatch! 

Adventures in marine wildlife management

It was also an especially busy year for our Foundation's Marine Wildlife Management Programme - the team that patrols the V&A Waterfront daily to assist animals in distress, facilitates harmonious interactions between wild animals and the public, and generally act as wildlife ambassadors. Over 3 530 hours were spent on wildlife patrols in 2022, resulting in 102 successfully disentangled seals, 226 roof checks for distressed seabirds, and 258 responses to human-wildlife incidents!

The seal team truly upped their effectiveness in 2022, displaying expert use of their new darting protocol, launching a new seal rest platform, and even stealthily grabbing an entangled sea off the front of a ship!

The Marine Wildlife team also saw some sunfish action, including guiding a tiny young sunfish find its way out of the harbour after becoming lost, and helping a large sunfish "fly" to freedom when it became trapped in our neighbouring dry dock.

Have a happy New Year! Best wishes from the fishes for 2023!