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The ocean is an amazing, beautiful, and colourful place! The sea can be calm one day, with soft waves, soft movement, and a soft blue look. However, in the blink of an eye, the sea can then turn bright pink with a jellyfish bloom, and within a matter of another second, stormy weather with flashing lightning can cause the water to turn black. But just as the sea can turn from pink and then to black without warning, it can also suddenly light back up with an array of spectacular colours provided by jellyfish and the sea turtles that eat them. As someone who has been lucky enough to witness several jellyfish blooms first hand, the best way I can describe it is an “oceanic firework show put on by Mother Nature.”

Moving around in the ocean is quite a thing. There are so many aspects to contend with such as currents, waves, wind, depth, shallows, predators and prey. Considering that there are animals as small as pinpricks - and as large as buses in the ocean, the development of specialised ways of locomotion is not surprising. Different species have each developed or adopted what the best way for them is to move from point A to point B. Some animals have opted to drift along with the currents, others have developed the ability to move far and fast with very little effort, and others have decided that hitching a ride on another animal is the answer. In the ocean we come across adaptations such as jet propulsion, tube feet, arrow-shaped tails, flipping marvellous flippers, and then the occasional aerial acrobatics that have perfected the art of low flying. In this blog, we are going to have a look at some of the ways that animals in the ocean get around.

Did you miss our Plastic Free July 2020 webinars, co-hosted by the Two Oceans Aquarium and Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation? If so, you can catch up here!Each year, Plastic Free July is celebrated across the world. The month-long campaign aims to raise awareness about single-use plastic and its impact on the environment. The premise of the campaign is to encourage people to make a commitment to forego at least one item of single-use plastics for the entire month, specifically the Big Four: plastic shopping bags, straws, plastic bottles and coffee cups.

Two Oceans Aquarium Head Chef Lucio de Allende's delicious sustainable seafood recipes have long been a hit amongst guests enjoying the Aquarium's catering facilities, and the recipes he's shared with our fans have been delicious. Join chef Lucio in his home kitchen for a ste-by-step guide to cooking a scrumptious spicy tomato and mussel pot!

Coming to a screen near you this Plastic Free July, the Two Oceans Aquarium and the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation proudly present a series of free webinars exploring ocean inspiration as well as the issues and solutions involved with plastics in the environment. Join us and our special ocean ambassador guests to hear more about how your choices connect you to the ocean and what you can do to be part of the solution.

If you enjoyed yesterday's delicious, sustainable hake fish cakes from Head Chef Lucio de Allende, then you'll love today's recipe! Mild yellowtail curry is one of chef Lucio's favourite dishes to prepare when providing world-class catering to functions at the Two Oceans Aquarium's venue, but it's also one of his family's favourites!

Chef Lucio invites you into his home to learn to cook quick and easy chilli and coriander hake fishcakes - a family favourite in the de Allende household! Hake one of the most popular South African seafoods, and thanks to many Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries and assessments that have placed hake on the WWF SASSI Green List, it also has the potential to remain one of our most sustainable food fishes.

We have a deep fascination with animals that light up. Fireflies are perhaps the best-known species, and glow worms. These animals glow because they have bioluminescence abilities. Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. This light is produced by a chemical reaction within the organism. In the ocean there are hundreds of known marine species that are bioluminescent, and certainly just as many unknown ones too. Some fish use their glowing lures to attract prey, some squid have replaced the traditional black ink with bioluminescent liquid, and even worms and bacteria can glow in the dark. Often, these animals have the required chemicals necessary for the reaction that produces bioluminescence. Other animals absorb or ingest bacteria and other living organisms that can glow, and use this ability to its own advantage.

We have a brand-new offering for our little fans in Grades 1 to 3. Ocean ‘Fun’atics is a series of live sessions that are filled with fun facts about marine animals. Each day will feature a different topic, such as how animals play hide and seek, animals and their different homes, and how you can tell a shark and fish apart.We will use Zoom to connect with a maximum of 20 children at a time. Our educators Wandiswa, Bianca and Chanelle will keep the kids entertained with pictures, actions, songs, and arts and crafts.We will run the Ocean ‘Fun’atics series from Monday to Friday. You can sign up for all five sessions, or just one or two.

We know you're missing the Aquarium, life just isn't the same without an eight-armed octopus to call on to help with all those arts and crafts!Well, our two-armed friends, here's a fun family craft to try with the kids. Fill up this fun octopus snack box with sweeties for dad for Father's Day, or keep all the goodies for yourself!

South Africa has been famously referred to as the rainbow nation because it is made up of so many diverse cultures and religions. Our language diversity alone is highly rich and authentic, and yet we find ourselves only able to speak one or two of our 11 official languages. Learning a different language can be an intimidating experience, but if you would like to expand your horizons and learn isiXhosa, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation is offering a course where you and your family will learn basic conversational isiXhosa for everyday situations.The main purpose of this course is to encourage families to learn to speak isiXhosa to each other and to strangers they meet in their daily lives. We want to celebrate our differences and similarities as a nation, while embracing our social, cultural and language diversity. We also aim to build bridges that close our social and language barriers as a South African community. The course will include fun conversations, basic vocabulary, phrases and songs that will improve your Xhosa speaking ability when going to the shops, petrol station or when speaking to your colleagues and classmates.The course is designed to be flexible and teachers Thabo Sabeko and Wandiswa Jonga will include additional content based on the input from participants during the course.

The ocean is home to many parents, but not many "dads". Why? Being a father is hard, and in most cases it's simply easier to scatter huge numbers of offspring into the ocean and hope for the best, or to use those resources to secure mates rather than to protect the young. It's a harsh world in the ocean - but the harshest environments are what form the ocean's best dads.Let's celebrate Father's Day by taking a look at some of the ocean's most exceptional father figures: