Support our Research and Conservation work
Every hour at sea, every stranding response, every recording, it all adds up.
A single day at sea costs around R3,000 in fuel and launch fees alone; responding to a stranded whale or seal costs roughly R2,000 in fuel and expendables, and that's before people's time, office space, or internet.
Your donation, however big or small, helps us keep showing up.
Give directly via PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee, SnapScan, or direct bank transfer.
Help fund essential Seal health research
Is Rabies on the rise?
We don't know, and we need to find out.
Rabies is spreading through South Africa's Cape fur seal population, and we need your help to understand how far it has spread. In 2024, our team confirmed that rabies was circulating among seals for the first time, and since then, more cases have been reported along the coast every month.
With nearly a million Cape fur seals in South Africa, and swimming and diving with seals a popular activity for tourists and locals alike, this isn't just a wildlife issue; it's a public health one too. Seal bites are already on the rise, and rabies raises the stakes considerably for both animal welfare and human safety.
We have the permits, the equipment, and the expertise. What we don't have yet is the funding to put it all to work. Our goal is to test 500 seals this coming field season, track how the outbreak is spreading, give wildlife managers the data they need to respond, and help healthcare workers and coastal communities understand their risk.
It's a One Health approach: protecting seals protects people too.
Partner with us
We'd love to build a longer-lasting partnership in which a portion of the proceeds from a product line - think shirts, wine, craft beer, or anything else - supports our work. If that's the kind of thing your business does and you're interested in teaming up, drop us a line! We'd equally love to collaborate with artists on a project like this; if you've got an idea, we're all ears.
Lend us your skills.
Most of our research is carried out by team members who are biology graduates or current students, which means there are gaps we'd love some help filling. We're especially short on marketing, web design, graphic design and illustration, and social media management, and we sometimes need more technical skills like engineering or mechanics on a project-by-project basis. If any of that sounds like you and you're keen to lend your time or expertise, we'd love to hear from you.
Sea Search Core Supporters
