M&G reporter
The Dolphinarium at Seaworld on the Durban beachfront is very popular with pre-school and primary school children. The pool arena is a site of excitement, as the kids cheer and shout at the performing aquatic mammals.
Judy Mann-Lang, Seaworld education manager, says the intelligence displayed by the dolphins is the magnet that attracts thousands of schoolchildren every year. “The kids just love the way these mammals play around; it’s as if they understand human languages and gestures. They find it very fascinating.”
Despite the patronage that the Dolphinarium enjoys, Seaworld has a serious side to it as well. The Aquarium offers a wide variety of marine life, fauna and flora, housed in tanks allowing a closer observation of life on the ocean floor.
This is the site for many educational tours by schools around the country, generally used to demonstrate the food cycle of the ecosystem. Bonginkosi Mzobe, a biology teacher at Senzokwethu High in Ntuzuma, says he arranges such field tours to the Aquarium yearly.
“I organise these tours for all the levels, from the junior classes upwards, so that the kids get an understanding of the relation between the marine environment and our own environment. Seaworld provides a practical exposure to pupils to complement their ecosystem curriculum.”
For grade 10 pupil Bongani Myende, a tour of Seaworld was more than just what the school curriculum requires.
“My visit to Seaworld has made me aware of a lot of things. Today I know the importance of keeping a clean environment in our neighbourhood. Consider the way we expose litter and waste. Some of the litter that is discarded in the rivers ends up finding its way to the sea. This pollutes the sea, and a disturbance of the ecosystem balance may have bad consequences for all of us.”
The Seaworld education centre is a wing of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research. The value of the centre was recognised when NBS provided a grant to convert and refurbish an old building to house new offices and lecture halls to cater for the extensive educational programmes it offers to thousands of visitors each year.
The newly built centre has enabled a closer working relationship between government departments and conservation organisations, resulting in increased services and support.
The role of volunteers at Seaworld cannot go unnoticed. Much of the work is made possible through the assistance of a group of volunteers who are trained for a wide range of roles.