C2C4C Marine Census to make history

World renowned marine expert Mark Addison, who is one of the six Coast2Coast4CANSA jet ski pilots who will be riding the 1511 nautical miles from Mozambique to Namibia to raise funds and awareness for cancer, will also be conducting the first ever mega-transect of the South African coast from a personal water craft during the expedition.

The four week expedition, which is supported by SPAR, is set to depart from Ponta Do Ouro this month on 20 April. Addison and the rest of the crew, including Yamaha WaveRunner pilots Russel Symcox, Barry Lewin, Jason Ribbink, Daryll Cullinan and Lance Klusener, expect to reach the Orange River, the border between South Africa and Namibia, four weeks and 2800km later.

Addison says that the marine census “is a contribution the project can make for marine science which will not detract from the main goal of raising awareness for cancer. Marine science in South Africa is poorly funded and poorly supported, hopefully this expedition and census can help raise the profile of marine science and conservation”.

During the journey, Addison “will be entering any animal or animal aggregations or marine events of interest onto the Lowrance sponsored GPS. This information will then be downloaded and tabulated daily. This data will then serve as a statement in time - the first ever mega-transect of the South African coast conducted on personal water craft”.

By collecting water samples every 100km, Addison also hopes to contribute to SAEON’s (South African Environmental Observation Network) ongoing monitoring of our coastal and in-shore ecosystems.

“Our coast is quite amazing so I am hopeful that we will see some amazing activity or individual animal sightings, including a broad range of shark species, baitfish, gamefish, turtles, dolphin, sea birds, penguins, seals and whales. We will also be accurately reporting the sardine shoals as we move through the eastern and southern Cape. I am really looking forward to seeing the Heaviside’s dolphin on the west coast, as it is a species I have never seen”.

Addison also expressed concern at the amount of plastic litter he has observed both in the ocean and on the beach during the C2C4C teams KZN training rides, “I hope this is not mirrored on the rest of the coast, as plastic litter poses a massive risk to sea life".