Durban - “Eco-anxiety” drove a Durban teenager from social media into paddling action.
“I was tired of posting on social media about the problems our planet was facing, and it gave me eco-anxiety and I needed to make a change that was tangible for people to see. So, I found the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) who do amazing work for our coastal seabirds and the African penguin.
“The African Penguin is also an indicator species: when the ocean is unhealthy so are the penguins so people can visually see the state our oceans are in,” said Keira King.
Sixteen-year-old Keira, who attends Crawford International La Lucia, paddled 46km from Ballito to uShaka Beach in seven hours and 20 minutes. Her longest paddle before this was 18km.
Keira said: “I am fundraising through SANCCOB. They work with rescuing and rehabilitating our coastline seabirds as well as our African penguins, who are endangered.
“They have a sea bird helpline where you can phone them if you find a stranded bird. Their vision is to rescue and rehabilitate the seabirds to increase the numbers in the wild to healthy numbers.
“I got in contact with them after my fundraising initiative last year, which was through Two Ocean Aquarium Foundation, raising funds for the turtles (who are also indicator species). Last year, I swam 7km for two hours and 12 minutes from Robben Island to mainland Cape Town. I raised R25 000 for them last year and realised that doing these adventures can make a difference to these organisations that rely heavily on funding to do the amazing work that they do.”
Keira said her initial target was R50 000 and currently is at R41 000, which she plans to raise through a school fundraiser.
“We’ll do a ‘funky sock day’ and I think it will help generate the remaining R9000 for my target,” she added.
Keira said her paddling journey began with lifesaving, back in 2014. Combined with lifesaving, she added that her grandfather was an underwater photographer and writer of multiple fish books, and her dad was a surfer so she was exposed to ocean life from a young age.
Keira added that in her continual pursuit of environmental sustainability, she had applied for a trip to Antarctica along with five Grade 11 pupils. After school she plans to take a gap year and use that opportunity to travel to Bali to work with people in the marine field and educate others.
The Independent on Saturday