Gansbaai

And it's, you know, you promote marine conservation experiences.

So there's a wonderful combination of responsible tourism, education, research, conservation and initiatives that help the sharks, the whales, the African penguins and other marine wildlife that surround your facility there in Gansbaai.

Zilla, always fantastic to catch up with you.

I hear the passion in your voice.

Um, and I know, you know, in our area, there was a lot of funding and support between probably about 2014 and 2020.

And then unfortunately, that funding was, was stopped, um, which was a great pity because we had a lot of people, you know, dependent on that funding and, and doing m- amazing work across the Agulhas Plain from around all these towns, Napier, Bredasdorp, um, Gansbaai, Stanford.

Um, I think it was in the region of 150 people at its, at its peak working in the invasive clearing business.

Unfortunately, that funding was cut.

And obviously now with the fires, we've got this amazing opportunity.

So all of our, all of the local conservation groups have got together, and we, we've got some hack groups as well.

Um, we've got some, uh, volunteer hack groups, um, from Pearly Beach, uh, from Gansbaai, De Kelders, which is wonderful to see.

Um, and then also, you know, through our foundation, the Grootbos Foundation, but also other conservation organizations across the Agulhas Plain, we're working very hard to try and raise funding, uh, to support the teams, um, to, to use this opportunity after fire.

I know that SCIF is working on gathering leopard data across South Africa and anecdotally, I've seen lots of news that's like, oh, there's leopards showing up in the Western Cape now.

Oh, there's leopards showing up in Gansbaai.

There's leopards showing up here, here, here, here.

People are like, whoa, okay, there seems to be more leopards around.

It probably feels like swimming in ice cream.

For years, Gansbaai Beach has remained a habitat for the most dangerous creatures on the planet.

Sharks are particular fans of its waters, and the coastal stretch is known as the Great White Shark Capital.

The sharks are attracted to the 60,000 sea lions that flock to the beach every year.