Our ever-popular De Beers Young Biologist Course, aimed at Grade 10s and 11s with an interest in marine science, was another big hit this year. Katja Rockstroh, PA to Head of Education at the Two Oceans Aquarium’s Environmental Education Centre, compiled the following highlights:

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The state of our oceans is now rather drastic.
Our world’s five gyres are filling with plastic.
The world’s future is both dark and dreary.
Have we done in our oceans? Nearly.
We throw our waste inside the bin,
Thinking we’ll never see it again.
But the bin falls over, junk is spilt,
Filling our rivers to the hilt.
Blocking old storm drains
And clogging up the city mains.
All this stuff that we call junk.
Flows to the ocean and turns to gunk.
In our minds is a consternation,
Of dual importance to both world and nation.
In order to save our world from destruction,
We must begin creative construction.
Not only must our oceans be saved,
But our needed action can not be delayed.
In order to save our seas from disaster,
Our response must be deployed faster.
For we cannot just stop the world’s degradation,
But must right the destruction wreaked on creation.
Through science and wisdom we can fix the past,
And remedy our mistakes at last.
Through scientific search we’ve seen
Some facts about these things marine.
Chiton’s names are exceedingly old –
They come from the Persian word for gold.
Sea turtles prey on jellyfish –
But plastic looks the same as this.
The East Coast rock lobster squeaks –
Whenever he has got the creeps.
Sea slugs may eat others
But at least don’t eat their brothers.
Pincushion starfish are quite large and thick –
But these are not for you to prick.
A wave ripples easily over the sea,
But has many small particles tricky to see.
We would like to state the notion,
That, combined, we can save the ocean.
As scientists, we must fight,
To save our oceans from their plight.
There’s but one way to conservation of our shores –
We must work together and fix our flaws.

– Matthew Courtney

One of our newest YBs from our De Beers Young Biologist group came up with this poem after a week of learning and fun at the Two Oceans Aquarium, and on the camp over the weekend. Below are some highlights from the course, our most popular programme offered to Grade 10s and 11s.

Discovering animals in a kelp holdfast; this is always a popular activity as animals such as brittle stars, peanut worms and sea spiders live in these. Group 7 got a prize because they found a flatworm in their holdfast, a rare find!

Close encounters with live animals, such as shy sharks and echinoderms. Echinoderms are a group of animals that only have marine examples and include all starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Off to camp, where we started with a walk to the beach and some limpet shell sorting

We include a hike, with stunning views, and to highlight the incredible fynbos biodiversity that most of us have, literally, right in our back gardens

A newer addition to the YB course camp is a beach clean-up. As the YBs need to organise their own clean-up, whether it is of a beach, river or neighbourhood, to receive a certain certificate level, we thought this would be a great addition

And what a lot of litter they collected. Well done!

On the last day, all of the YBs have some solitary time, to reflect on the whole YB week, to spend time with themselves and their thoughts, something not many people do in this digital age

And here they are, our September 2013 Young Biologists! We are very proud, as we are of all of our YBs, and we cannot wait to see them volunteering

To give you the view of one of the YBs, below is her feedback from the course:

I would like to thank The Two Oceans Aquarium, the staff involved (Xavier Zylstra, Bianca Engel, Katja, Russell and the YBs involved) who made the Young Biologist course possible.

Yours sincerely,
Jessie Leverzencie (Young Biologist – Wynberg Girls High School)

To end off this blog, here is a song written by Cameron Russell, another one of our new YBs (and the song should be sung to the tune of Frosty the Snowman):

I’m going fishing, it’s a very lovely day, the sun is high, the sea is flat and my bait is fresh, ho ray.

I’m going fishing, I hope these fish do roam because I told my mom and told my dad I will bring them supper home.

If you would like to become a Young Biologist and you missed the Grade 10 intake, we will be running another YB course aimed at Grade 11s from 31 March to 6 April. Applications will open in January 2014. Watch this space!