Flora and Fauna

Flora and Fauna

The beach is home to scores of amazing plants and animals. Learn just a few of these and make your next visit to the beach a treat.

About

Coastal Care is focused on coastal and beach issues and education. The site will serve as the central hub of the Foundation’s activities, and federate the efforts of many local communities from around the world.

Educate

Coastal Care Introduction

The world’s beaches are in dire need of attention.

The World Is Running Out of Male Sea Turtles – Science Alert

Green Sea Turtle (by Laura Gooch CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

Green sea turtles are already an endangered species, mainly due to humans hunting them, harvesting their eggs, degrading their habitats, or entangling them in garbage of some kind. But they also face another, more insidious threat from people: the loss of male hatchlings from the species…that this is partly caused by rising temperatures due to climate change – but a new study has now unveiled another human-caused problem driving this trend. Certain pollutants may promote feminization in sea turtles, explains lead author Arthur Barraza, a toxicologist with the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University…

The “Octopus Garden” – MBARI

Pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) nesting in rocky crevices in the "Octopus Garden" on the Davidson Seamount, part of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary off the central coast of California. (courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust / NOAA, public domain).

Deep below the ocean’s surface just off the Central California coast, thousands of octopus gather near an extinct underwater volcano. The Octopus Garden is the largest known aggregation of octopus anywhere in the world…

Science Denial Has Impacts

Speech by the NATO Secretary General at a Joint Meeting of the US House of Representatives and Senate 2019 (by NATO CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, made a wonderful statement some time ago, that is worth sharing – “The good thing about science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe it”. Science is really not an option. Whether biology, chemistry, physics, oceanography, geology or astronomy, scientists in these disciplines over centuries of research, conducting experiments, collecting evidence, and testing and examining their ideas have gradually developed an understanding of how the Earth and its life works. And much of our everyday lives depends on the application of that science…

Surfers, miners fight over South Africa’s white beaches – PHYS.ORG

Satellite view of the Olifants River Estuary, South Africa (image via Google Earth: Maxar Technologies AfriCIS(Pty) Ltd CNES / Airbus Data SIO, NOAA; U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO Terrametrics).

Diamonds, zircon and other minerals have long been extracted in the sandy coastline near the Olifants river, which flows into the Atlantic about 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Cape Town.

But plans to expand the mining have angered surfers, animal lovers and residents in this remote, sparsely populated region—and they are pushing back with lawsuits and petitions.