By exploring the African sea forests for nearly a decade, a small group of pioneers have given us a new understanding of life on the coastline and a groundbreaking film My Octopus Teacher. The book Sea Change tells the story of this undersea environment and reveals the remarkable creatures that they encounter every day.
Photos: Sea Change Project
Introduction by Anton Crone
One of my greatest teachers wasn’t the octopus, it was the octopus’ pupil, Craig Foster. Five years ago he invited me for a swim that changed the way I looked at the world. At the time, Craig was in the middle of his transformative experiment to dive the cold waters of False Bay’s sea forest every single day. What he learnt was astounding. You’re likely to have seen a good deal of it in the film My Octopus Teacher which has captivated audiences worldwide. And he learnt much more, like the art of tracking animals underwater and how our ancestors hunted them; he discovered new species and documented astounding behaviour never before seen; Craig – along with Ross Frylinck, Pippa Erlich and the team of the Sea Change Project – became disciples of cold, revelling in the mental and physical benefits of cold water immersion and the tranquility of the aquatic world. Divers ensconced in wetsuits and scuba gear would often emerge shivering from the ocean only to be passed by a tribe of happy free divers on their way into the chilly domain wearing nothing but shorts or bikinis.
When he first invited me into this world, my mind and body rebelled. My imagination shrank at first to focus exclusively on the cold, then it soon expanded beyond the proportions I was used to. Craig helped me appreciate the transformation that occurs when we hold our breath and our bodies are immersed in cold water. Everything is fast-tracked, our vulnerability becomes acute and our senses are heightened. I recognised this swimming through the forest, pulling myself down on long kelp stems to reach the sea bed, holding my breath for longer and longer as I dived deeper and deeper. The reward was a clarity of vision and a profound appreciation of the wildlife surrounding me, that accepted me without fear or favour. I often return to this environment, and I hope we can give you a taste of it among these pages, and perhaps invite you into a new world.
Craig Foster is an award-winning filmmaker and avid naturalist. His filmmaking career has spanned three decades and he has received more than 60 international awards, including the Golden Panda, the ‘Oscar’ of natural history filmmaking. He grew up foraging and diving on the Cape Peninsula and for the past eight years he has pledged to dive in the kelp forest 365 times a year. Craig has worked closely with some of the world’s top kelp forest biologists, archaeologists, anthropologists and San rock art experts.
My Octopus Teacher co-director, Pippa Ehrlich, has been telling stories about nature, science and conservation for 10 years as a journalist and filmmaker. She has worked with top marine scientists and under-water photographers around the world and has been free-diving in Cape Town’s sea forest for a decade. More recently, she gave up her wetsuit and started skin-diving almost every day. Pippa is currently editing and co-directing a kelp forest feature documentary combining natural history with indigenous philosophy and wilderness psych-ology to explore the bond between humans and the natural world.
Ross Frylinck has been exploring the South African coastline as a surfer and free-diver for most of his life. He started the Wavescape Ocean Festival and has been pioneering ocean conservation and culture in South Africa for the past 15 years. Once a commissioning editor for Cambridge University Press, he has been telling stories about the sea since his first school essay.
These images and over 240 others are published in Sea Change. This stunning book takes you on an evocative journey into the secret life of the Southern African Kelp Forest where Craig and Ross spent eight years exploring together, diving almost every day. This is the story of what they found in the wild, and how it has transformed their lives.
seachangeproject.com
‘A magnificent book’ – Sir David Attenborough
Price: R395
Quivertree Publications