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From 7 to 9 July 2026, the Two Oceans Aquarium hosted our very first Animal Enrichment Workshop, bringing together staff, volunteers, and animal enthusiasts for three days of learning, building, and hands-on fun.

As zoo and aquarium educators from around the world come together at the IZE Conference 2026 to share ideas, celebrate innovation, and strengthen their collective impact, we are honoured to welcome three exceptional keynote speakers: Dr Gcina Mhlophe, Dave Morgan, and Loyiso Dunga. 

This year's Creatures & Creators workshop looked a little different. Where 2025's edition unfolded over three days, 2026 packed all the wonder, collaboration, and discovery into a single action-packed day on 17 July.  

When a female loggerhead turtle of nesting age washed ashore in Betty's Bay in February 2025, severely entangled in the ropes of a marker buoy, the damage had already been done. While ghost gear is often described in statistics, its true impact is revealed through the stories of individual animals.

As the world prepares to celebrate MPA (Marine Protected Areas) Day on 1 August, attention is once again turning to one of the most ambitious conservation commitments ever made: the Global Goal to protect 30% of the world's land, freshwater, and ocean by 2030.

The orbicular batfish is a large, disc-shaped fish with a flattened dusky silver body. Its anal and dorsal fins are symmetrical, giving the adult batfish a spade-like appearance. Its dorsal, anal and tail fins are translucent yellow with black margins, and its pectoral fins are yellow.

Bluefin gurnards are a common bottom-dwelling fish that is a common throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  

The sergeant majors are small, oval damselfish. It has a grey body with a yellow dorsal area. 

The steentjie (Spondyliosoma emarginatum) is a blue-grey fish that has an oval-shaped body with several faint yellow horizontal stripes on its flanks and dark blue-grey fins. It has several sets of both incisors and a row of molars. They use this combination of teeth to pick up bottom-dwelling invertebrates and crush their shells. As they mature they become more omnivorous and will graze on algae. During spring and summer months, male steentjies will take on brighter blue and yellow colours and will construct nests in the sand. Once spawning has taken place, the males will remain at the nest to guard the eggs until they hatch. The steentjie occurs in large shoals above shallow, rocky reefs on the coasts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal.

The hottentot is a small bronze-grey seabream with small dark fins that occurs along the coast of Angola, Namibia, and the South African West Coast to Cape Point. 

The janbruin is a robust-bodied sea bream with an orange-brown body and deep blue eyes set into a blue-brown face. 

The dassie is a deep-bodied, oval-shaped fish with a silver body, black patch on its tail peduncle and red-pink tint to the tips of its fins. Juveniles also have several dark vertical bars on each side.