Photographer, from Love Africa, Casey Pratt has been following all the lockdown rules but thanks to her drone, she has been able to capture stunning images of dolphins out in the wilds.
Durban, South Africa (24 July 2020) – Photographer, from Love Africa, Casey Pratt has been using her drone to capture beautiful images of ocean mammals during the lockdown. Her most recent snap shows a pod of dolphins playing in the clear Durban coast waters.
She saw some movements in the waters near her home and sent her drone up to take a look. She managed to capture a few images but didn’t realise what she had captured until she sat down by her computer.
“A large pod of dolphins were swimming by and with the clean water and early morning light I knew it would be worth a quick flight with the drone.
I never realised until looking at the footage later that I was capturing a rare humpback dolphin swimming with the more common bottlenose dolphins. Apparently it is not completely abnormal for dolphins to be in mixed-species groups.”
Casey had captured footage of the Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin. The Indian Ocean humpback dolphin is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They prefer the inshore waters which makes them more susceptible to threats such as shark nets, pollution and disturbance from boats.
There is still so much to be learnt about these shy and elusive dolphins so that measures can be put in place to protect them.
Ocean Impact has been working to further protect South African coastlines and hope to raise awareness surrounding the protected areas currently in the country. Currently, 5% of South Africa’s oceans are protected in Marine Protected Areas. This year they need another 5% to reach their goal of 10% protection by 2020.