Inspiring a sea change

In South Africa’s marine world there have been people akin to royalty over the past 120 years or so. There was Scottish marine biologist John Gilchrist, who in St James in 1902 built what became the country’s first aquarium. Then in 1981 George and Margot Branch set the standard with the most comprehensive book of the time about our ocean, called The Living Shores of Southern Africa. There’s a respectful lull whenever they enter a room.

But the trick about profiles is spotting the next superstar; who will make history next?

When it comes to Judy Mann, there’s a strong argument to be made that she’ll leave a legacy that lasts.

Let’s get her titles out of the way, and be advised that these aren’t all of them. Mann is the executive for strategic projects at the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, president of the International Zoo Educators Association, she serves on the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums Council and is the chair of its conservation committee, is an expert member of the UN Ocean Decade’s Working Group 10, serves on the board of the Sustainable Seas Trust and leads the enabling communities working group of Reverse the Red. Mann was the CEO and later the conservation strategist for the South African Association for Marine Biological Research, which operates uShaka Marine World and the Oceanographic Research Institute. She co-founded the Marine & Coastal Educators Network, the #NotOnOurWatch African penguin survival campaign and Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Day.

Surprisingly Mann does actually sleep, but she’s been known to have to pull off a highway and host a global Zoom call from her phone. The biggest impending project right now is MPA Day, which is happening today, on August 1. Mann helped to start the project in 2021, despite the pandemic.

“I was having a shower and I thought we’ve got a day for everything, we’ve got Arbor Day, we’ve got Ocean Day, we’ve got Penguin Day, we’ve got just about a day for anything, what about marine protected areas?”

At the time the South African government had finally, after pressure from campaigns that Mann was a part of, declared 5.4% of the country’s exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles to sea all around the coastline, as MPAs. But Mann knew from on-the-ground research that more than 80% of South Africa’s citizens couldn’t name one of the 41 MPAs that existed.

“How can we expect people to support a concept that they don’t even understand,” Mann asks. “In South Africa we understand game reserves, but we don’t think about the same thing in the ocean.”

The need to understand is growing. South Africa is committed to the global 30x30 initiative, which aims to have 30% of the world’s sea and land protected by 2030. While local scientists have identified the next 5% of MPAs that should probably be proclaimed, the state may well not make the 30x30 target.

Nonetheless, MPA Day is a valiant effort and has become a global event, with activities planned in countries including the Maldives, Mozambique, Egypt, Bali, Indonesia, the Philippines, St Helena, Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

After that it’s endangered penguins for Mann, with International African Penguin Awareness Day on October 12. And a new unit at the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation. And a host of conferences. And there are more projects to be launched.

A lifelong passion

Understanding Mann’s driving force is somewhat of a winding road, but it started simply enough. Mann says her mother recalls her asking for a fishing rod and an umbrella for Christmas at about age two so that she could fish with her dad in the rain. She remembers wanting to teach children about rock pools and knew by about eight that she wanted to study fish. Which you can do at Rhodes University — it’s the study of ichthyology.

Her master’s degree went deep into fish, literally. What many don’t know is that fish have ear bones, called otoliths. These tiny structures are made of calcium carbonate and help scientists determine the age of a fish — a vital measurement that can help inform researchers when certain species reach sexual maturity and what size limits the state should impose for fishermen.

But after a couple of years of staring down microscopes, Mann “started realising that my passion is not just the fish, but it’s the people and the fish, and it’s inspiring people to care for fish”.

With her ties to aquariums, Mann was able to conduct research about whether such spaces do inspire people and for her PhD thesis she found that we all look at the ocean differently, so we all come into an aquarium with our own particular perspectives.

“The biggest lesson I learnt is that we need to ensure that our aquarium experiences cater for a whole range of different people. They need to cater for people who are passionate about the ocean, they need to cater for people who don’t care about the ocean, they need to cater for people who are going and they’re just wanting to have some fun, they need to cater to people who have got, like, a vague interest but no real knowledge, or people who have got a lot of knowledge,” she says.

“Some people walk into the aquarium and are terrified because the ocean is a frightening place, so we need to help people to feel less frightened about the ocean, we need to reassure them, we need to talk about myths and legends. Most people feel that there’s no connection between them and the ocean — that what they do on land doesn’t make any difference. So we need to inspire and connect them, but then we also need to empower people. It’s pointless giving people all the bad news and all the things that they should do without giving them the opportunity to do it.”

While uShaka and the Two Oceans Aquarium are dripping with information targeted at a wide range of people, there’s much more that could be done if there were easily accessible funding. Even though the ocean makes up more than 70% of the world, produces more than half of the air we breathe and, as US-based Mission Blue’s renowned Sylvia Earle says, “no blue, no green”, a 2023 report on the state of ocean funding showed that the sea receives less than 1% of global philanthropic funding.

Further, the seas are warming, crucial hard coral reefs are bleaching, ocean acidification (which can cause a crab’s exoskeleton to dissolve) is on the rise and species are becoming extinct in the wild. Compassion fatigue and eco-depression are real.

“I’ve been through stages when I’ve looked at my career and thought, ‘well, it’s a complete waste of time because in the time I’ve been doing what I do and I’ve been doing climate change talks and ocean talks for 30 years, what have I really achieved’, so it’s easy to get depressed,” Mann says.

But Mann keeps her connection to the ocean by living in Kleinemonde in the Eastern Cape and walking on the beach, swimming when the season allows and spending time at the ocean with her husband and family and friends.

Beyond that, she paraphrases a famous US marine scientist, Jane Lubchenco, when she says that “in the past we used to think that the ocean was so big that it couldn’t fail. Then we went through a phase of thinking that the ocean was so damaged that we couldn’t solve the problems. And I think that now we’re in the state where we’re saying that the ocean is so important that we can’t fail.”

And that, thankfully, is what keeps Mann going and no doubt Earle and Lubchenco and the Branches and others like them. All of us need them not to fail.

“There was a realisation that this is my mission,” Mann says. “This is my calling, this is what drives me to do what I do and we simply cannot give up — the ocean needs us too much.”