-
Foundation
- Team
- Centers
-
Projects
- Funding
- The Threats
-
News
- Blog
- Field Updates
- Articles
- Photography
- Videos
-
Get involved
- Support us
-
Resources
- Magazine
- Downloads
- Educators
- Researchers
- Photo gallery
- Video gallery
-
Contact
- Contact us
- Collaboration
- Home →
- Projects →
- BRUVS in False Bay
BRUVS in False Bay
False Bay, South Africa
- Project details
- ·
- Project blog
Key Objective:
To deploy Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) in False Bay, providing the first comprehensive survey of fish and sharks across all habitats.
Why this is important:
South African inshore fisheries collectively account for the capture of over 600 fish and shark species, but the logistics associated with long-term monitoring mean that the conservation status of less than 20 of these species is adequately assessed. BRUV technology represents a more cost-effective, time-efficient method of data collection with a low environmental impact that can be used for long-term ecosystem assessments.
Background
Current monitoring techniques in South Africa (SCUBA surveys and controlled angling surveys) are expensive, reliant on skilled labour, and usable only to certain depths and in particular ocean conditions.
BRUV technology is evolving rapidly as camera technology becomes more affordable and increases in resolution quality. The concept is simple: fish are attracted within the field of view of an underwater camera, and the footage is brought ashore to be analysed. The use of GoPro HD cameras attached to easy-to-deploy rigs takes advantage of easy-to-access technology and adds an innovative tool to existing monitoring methods. To maximise data collection, multiple camera rigs are buoyed off to film fish in the Bay simultaneously, for one hour each. The development of this methodology will provide conservation agencies and marine protected area managers with a time-efficient tool that eliminates some of the obstacles that currently hinder sustainable monitoring of our fish populations.
This False Bay survey will directly impact the future of affordable, sustainable underwater monitoring in South Africa. Beyond its scientific scope and relevance, the project will impact the way marine environments – and particularly MPAs – are understood and accessed by the public. Video footage used as scientific data plays an equally important role in education, making False Bay and its life a tangible reality that the public is both privy to, and responsible for. This project offers a phenomenal opportunity to close a gap between scientists, fishers and the public, while obtaining sound scientific data that will guide conservation decisions in one of South Africa’s most utilised and valuable coastal bays.
Aims and Objectives
The general aim of the project is to provide a video-based survey of sharks and fishes in False Bay, with the following objectives:
- Obtaining measures of species richness and community composition of sharks and fishes in False Bay.
- Assessing relative abundance of commercially targeted and conservation-interest species.
- Providing educational videos of False Bay’s marine life.
Project leader:
Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos
Partners:
The Marine Research Institute, UCT & South African Environmental Observation Netwok (SAEON)
Related threat:
Overfishing
Predator loss
Years funded:
2012
Subscribe to project blog updates via RSS
The Life Aquatic
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 29 March, 2014
A previous post of mine introduced you all to SciFest Africa 2014 – and the 68 000 (or so) children who flooded Grahamstown during that period! A major component of our False Bay BRUVs work has been about using videos…
Discovering our Seas
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 24 March, 2014
“So, what are you going to be when you grow up?” Stepping carefully out from the darkened interior of our DiscoverSea Tent after watching his first video of South Africa’s incredible ocean life, his eyes wide and earnest, 4 year…
The Overview Effect
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 27 January, 2014
“The sea remains the greatest wilderness. To my mind, voyaging through wildernesses, be they full of woods or waves, is essential to the growth and maturity of the human spirit.” - Steven Callahan, Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea I have…
The Power of your Plate
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 22 January, 2014
I’m mid-sentence, my brain thrashing lamely with statistical terminology, when my cellphone vibrates loudly on the wooden desk. I should really switch this thing off for meetings. I toss the offending piece of technology into my bag and resume my…
Falling for False Bay
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 26 September, 2013
Who’d have thought that, when I started this project a little over a year and a half ago now, I’d fall so completely for False Bay’s charms? All the statistics and the science aside, there are days when I simply…
Listening is a way of teaching too
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 16 May, 2013
Monitoring. It’s a keyword that is often bandied about in conservation circles. “Effective long-term monitoring” is needed to keep track of our conservation efforts, our “resources”, our “dwindling” fish stocks, to make “informed decisions”... but I wonder how often it…
Struisbaai’s secrets
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 16 May, 2013
I have a bit of a confession to make. Somewhere, in the midst of nearly 300 hours of footage we’ve collected using our BRUVs to date, I forgot about some hidden gems I’ve been meaning to share for some time!…
Sharks in the Spotlight
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 22 February, 2013
Finding sharks on our cameras has become an event of a most philosophical nature for me. For every curious glance they give our cameras, for every thrill of excitement their regal presence brings, there is some flicker on sadness reflected…
Summer in False Bay
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 05 February, 2013
Another 95 hours worth of filming across False Bay, and our summer survey is complete. A puffadder shyshark confronts the camera The data collected during this period will provide a valuable comparison for the data we collected in winter, to…
Celebrating our wilderness home: welcome to False Bay
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 26 November, 2012
I recently presented at the SOS Shark Centre’s marine conservation speaker series, and decided once again that images and video could speak far more eloquently to the point (and poignancy) of my work here in False Bay. My greatest concern,…
A Return to the Sea
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 26 November, 2012
As South Africans, we’ve inherited a phenomenal wilderness heritage. However, the majority of citizens in our beautiful country will never experience this, or grow to understand its value and love its unique diversity. Barred from our remaining wild spaces by…
Meet the BRUV(ver)hood
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 01 October, 2012
We have a new addition to our team here at the University of Cape Town, in the form of vivacious MSc Conservation Biology candidate, Carolyn Sanguinetti. Hailing from the UK, Carolyn received her BSc (Hons) in Wildlife Conservation from the…
Saving sharks from JAWS
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 14 September, 2012
“So, I want your ears and eyes open ... I’m going to say something, and show you a picture, and the 5 fastest hands-up can tell me what words spring to mind first” It was an exciting morning for over…
Fins in False Bay
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 15 August, 2012
An element of surprise ... There is some quality about my job that I find quite difficult to explain, and it has to do with the answer I give to the question that I am most commonly asked about this…
Rock(lobster)ing in False Bay
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 21 July, 2012
Who’d have thought, given the quantity of literature on the use of BRUVs for documenting large-bodied and mobile fish species, that we’d be finding it useful for mobile invertebrates in False Bay? Having watched a section of the winter samples,…
This is False Bay, on film ...
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 21 July, 2012
There’s nothing quite like a good story. When I’m in the throes of fieldwork, smeared with sardines and sunburnt, it’s difficult to step out of the day-to-day hard work and see the overall conservation story unfolding. However, sometimes the ocean…
The beauty of BRUVs ...
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 21 July, 2012
Having given you a glimpse into what we’ve been up to, on land and on the boat, I figured the next step would be to showcase what the underwater world looks like when we survey it. In our bid to…
Winter in False Bay ... done and dusted!
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 21 July, 2012
96 hours of filming across False Bay. Nearly 2 months on permanent standby for good-weather days and calm sea conditions (a killer for any reasonably normal day-to-day life, trust me!) And, that’s a wrap! We’ve completed our first major survey…
Foiled by an octopus ...
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 27 June, 2012
It seems you can think everything through ... and then the ocean finds a way to outwit you! On a second trial run in False Bay a little while ago, we experienced thievery by a clever octopus once again -…
Bringing the ocean to our classrooms ...
— Colin Attwood, Albrecht Götz, Lauren de Vos, 26 June, 2012
If you can’t hold your breath and swim strongly, SCUBA dive or access a boat, our oceans will remain a largely intangible underwater world to most South Africans That is unless, of course, we bring our oceans ashore ... It’s…