5 the state of science in south africa
B I O L O G I C A L S C I E N C E S
cold Benguela current facilitates develop- cantly to the country’s high research output
ment of kelp beds and provides livelihood in the biological sciences.
for seals and penguins.
The current marine bioscience community
Because of its physical diversity, the region in South Africa is small by global standards;
also supports a remarkably rich marine bi- regional symposia normally attracting some
ota for its size. This currently comprises 12 300 delegates, many of them students. Re-
760 described species, of which 4 233, or search activities are extremely diverse, but
33%, are endemic (Griffiths et al., in press). can perhaps be grouped into three main
However, many taxa remain poorly inves- categories.
tigated and waters deeper than 1 000 m
(75% of the Exclusive Economic Zone) have Researchers based at museums and nation-
barely been sampled. The area is thus fertile al facilities have as their primary role the
for further discovery and thousands more maintenance and description of taxonomic
species undoubtedly remain to be discov- collections. The most important collections
ered there. Another feature of the region remain those at the South African Museum
is the strong gradients of both productiv- (129 000 records), but the major collections
ity and biodiversity around the coastline. of some taxa are housed at other institu-
The cold, productive, up-welled waters of tions, notably fish (56 000 records) at the
the west coast support relatively few spe- South African Institute for Aquatic Biodi-
cies, but several major commercial fisher- versity in Grahamstown, mollusks (63 000)
ies, whereas the warmer, nutrient-poor at the Natal Museum and algae at both
east coast has greater species richness, but Rhodes University (RU) (32 000) and UCT
fewer smaller fisheries. (11 000). Unfortunately, permanent posts
for staff to both maintain and work on these
Although European explorers collected collections seem to be dwindling.
marine specimens in the Cape as early as
the 1700s and the South African Museum, A second research group is that employed
which included marine collections, opened by government departments, notably the
in 1825 (one of the earliest outside Europe), MCM, plus smaller groups in national and
indigenous research in marine biology in provincial conservation authorities, and
the region is generally regarded as dating whose mandate is largely one of manage-
from 1895, when John D Gilchrist was ap- ment. MCM houses the largest single group
pointed as government marine biologist, of marine scientists in the region and their
and later as both a curator at the South responsibility is mainly research into and
African Museum and (in 1907) as chair of management of, the nation’s commercial,
zoology at the South African College (later recreational and subsistence fish stocks. Re-
UCT). From these humble beginnings, ma- cently, the institute has also developed an
rine biosciences have developed into one active aquaculture section that is playing
of the more active and productive fields of an important role in developing new target
research in the country, contributing signifi- species. MCM also plays an important na-
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