Beautiful blue water? White sandy beaches? Whales, dolphins, sharks? For most people these are the first things that come to mind when thinking of the ocean, but I’d like to invite you to rethink this and take a closer look at the small things. The ocean is so full of life, big and small, huge and tiny, and there is so much wonder in the small things. Yes, the big animals that we know so well are full of character and drama, but if you take a moment and focus on the smaller things, they have just as much going for them as the big stuff!

So take a deep breath and dive down with me as we take a closer look and get to know five of my favourite small things that call the Cape Town kelp forest home.

I give you - the drone. An incredible little piece of equipment and a completely new perspective on the ocean. Given a clear day you can fly out and by adjusting the height and angle of the camera you can see through the water and essentially snorkel from the comfort of a lookout point.

For the most part the ocean is where I feel most at peace and a deep sense of calmness, however there are moments when I feel nervous or start to feel fears creeping up on me and this is a totally normal experience in the ocean. I’ve been snorkelling and freediving for most of my life and I’ve had the privilege of diving with a huge variety of ocean life in a wonderful array of places. Despite these experiences I still feel nervous in the ocean at times, but through these experiences I have been able to develop tools to manage the nerves or fears as they crop up and those tools are what I am going to be sharing below.

When I was a girl I read a book called Ingo, by Helen Dunmore. The book is set in Cornwall, England and is about a girl called Sapphire who discovers she has the ability to become Mer when she slips beneath the surface of the ocean. The story follows Sapphire on a number of adventures through the ocean around Cornwall and it absolutely cast a spell on me. Since reading Ingo for the first time when I was about 10 years old I have yearned to dive in Cornwall. Fast forward to 2022 and my dream came true!

Rockpools form between the high tide and low tide line along the rocky sections of beaches. Every high tide they are flushed with fresh ocean water, leaving them clean and renewed by the time low tide comes around. Tidal pools are human-made versions of rockpools and are often much larger than most natural rockpools. While I love diving out in the open ocean, there is a unique magic to snorkelling and even diving in rock and tidal pools.

The ocean is my place of peace. Since I was a child I have been drawn to the ocean in times of stress, anxiety or uncertainty and as I’ve settled into adulthood I find this to be the case more now than ever before. Only in recent years did I discover that there is scientific evidence showing that the ocean has a positive effect on mental health. The solace I have always sought from the ocean makes so much sense knowing that it is grounded in science, but I never needed that confirmation, the way the ocean makes me feel was evidence enough for me.