South Africa is the second largest catamaran-producer in the world after France with Cape Town being responsible for 85% of all boat production in the country. It's clear to see the impact this one industry can have the nation's economy, and as I have researched more and more about it, I've become overwhelmed by how large the industry really is. My most recent task regarding the marine industry was to create a database of all the companies and organizations that contribute to the production of boats in South Africa. When I first started, I thought it would be a 3-day thing, but this has been an ongoing project in our office for the last three weeks. Day after day, I find myself sitting in front of my screen typing away endless amounts of information from the names of companies and their contact numbers, to a brief description of them and what roles they play in the marine manufacturing industry. Just the other day, I was handed a three-inch folder completely filled with information on boat building companies, and I managed to work through its entire contents in half a day. It's mindless and never-ending work, but I can't complain because I wasn't given this job just because I'm the intern; three other people in the office, including one of my bosses, are working on it as well.
Luckily for me (and unfortunately for my coworkers who had to pick up the slack), I got to skip data entry for a week and explore other towns in the Western Cape while learning research skills. My company, Urban-Econ, has several branches around South Africa. I work for the Cape Town office, but the office in Port Elizabeth needed some people from the Western Cape to help them conduct primary research in the area. My bosses and coworkers suggested that I go and gain experience taking surveys while also getting to other parts of the country, and I was more than happy to oblige. Cherry on top: they paid for all my expenses on the trip (which is more than I can say for my actual internship), including travel, food, and accommodation in really nice B&Bs.
The people generously footing this bill for me and three other surveyors were clients of the Port Elizabeth office. They have been interested in investing in wind energy in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, but first, they wanted to gauge public opinion on wind turbines. Specifically, the focus of my surveys was to find out out tourist opinion on wind energy facilities in order to determine if having a wind farm in an area would affect tourism in or around that area. Our trip was broken up into two parts. The first week, we surveyed tourists in the beautiful town of Hermanus, which lies along the southern coast.
Hermanus has been recognized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as one of 12 best places in the world to go whale watching. Unlike many other parts of South Africa where there aren't nearly as many tourists as in the summer, this is peak tourist season for Hermanus because of the Southern Right Whales. During the Southern Hemisphere summer, the whales live near Antarctica, but during the winter, they swim up to Hermanus to mate and give birth. Hermanus' coastline is unique in that the depth of the water drops very quickly off of the coast. This allows the whales to be seen as close as five meters from shore. In addition, there is a beautiful 12km Cliff Path that runs along the entirety of the Hermanus coast, creating many ideal whale watching spots.
The best part about my job was that I basically got to spend my entire week on the Cliff Path taking surveys while also enjoying the view (and the sun!). We were fortunate that the weather was so nice, and I found a lot of people on the benches simply relaxing and looking out at the ocean. Since they weren't busy with anything else, many of them were more than willing to spare 5-10 minutes for the survey. Of course, I encountered some unpleasant or even straight-up rude people that just did not like to be bothered, but overall, tourists and locals alike were so friendly and genuinely curious about the work I
was doing. One man was so intrigued by our surveys that he insisted on taking it - even though he was a local and we didn't need his opinion. Turned out, he was the owner of a whale watching boat cruise, and after he finished, he offered all four of us a free whale watching boat cruise the next day! The whales were so friendly and came up within 50 feet of the boat.
Another fun part of taking surveys was listening to South Africans constantly bash the national utility company, Eskom. Even if the individuals themselves did not like wind power, they conceded the fact that there is a major energy shortage crisis (and growing!) in South Africa. Since Eskom was so horrible, everyone thought that someone should step in and do something about it. If that meant adding in wind energy, they would support it. On the other hand, most international tourists I surveyed were visiting from countries where they were used to seeing a lot of wind turbines, such as the Netherlands and the UK. I really enjoyed talking to these tourists because they were able to give an insider's perspective on wind energy. Generally speaking though, I found that the people I surveyed were open to the idea of incorporating wind-powered energy into the South African grid.
On several occasions, I found myself sitting on a bench for over half an hour just talking to people about all the different types of renewable energy sources. Never have I been happier I took a course on renewable energy last semester. I felt so proud for being able to carry on an intelligent conversation with so many people about it. Multiple times, the people I was surveying would ask me questions about renewable energy regarding the technical aspects of it, and I was able to provide great answers, all due to Physics 210...thanks Professor Greg! :)
The people generously footing this bill for me and three other surveyors were clients of the Port Elizabeth office. They have been interested in investing in wind energy in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, but first, they wanted to gauge public opinion on wind turbines. Specifically, the focus of my surveys was to find out out tourist opinion on wind energy facilities in order to determine if having a wind farm in an area would affect tourism in or around that area. Our trip was broken up into two parts. The first week, we surveyed tourists in the beautiful town of Hermanus, which lies along the southern coast.
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| I got to enjoy this view while working, day in and day out. |
The best part about my job was that I basically got to spend my entire week on the Cliff Path taking surveys while also enjoying the view (and the sun!). We were fortunate that the weather was so nice, and I found a lot of people on the benches simply relaxing and looking out at the ocean. Since they weren't busy with anything else, many of them were more than willing to spare 5-10 minutes for the survey. Of course, I encountered some unpleasant or even straight-up rude people that just did not like to be bothered, but overall, tourists and locals alike were so friendly and genuinely curious about the work I
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| This one even waved! |
Another fun part of taking surveys was listening to South Africans constantly bash the national utility company, Eskom. Even if the individuals themselves did not like wind power, they conceded the fact that there is a major energy shortage crisis (and growing!) in South Africa. Since Eskom was so horrible, everyone thought that someone should step in and do something about it. If that meant adding in wind energy, they would support it. On the other hand, most international tourists I surveyed were visiting from countries where they were used to seeing a lot of wind turbines, such as the Netherlands and the UK. I really enjoyed talking to these tourists because they were able to give an insider's perspective on wind energy. Generally speaking though, I found that the people I surveyed were open to the idea of incorporating wind-powered energy into the South African grid.
On several occasions, I found myself sitting on a bench for over half an hour just talking to people about all the different types of renewable energy sources. Never have I been happier I took a course on renewable energy last semester. I felt so proud for being able to carry on an intelligent conversation with so many people about it. Multiple times, the people I was surveying would ask me questions about renewable energy regarding the technical aspects of it, and I was able to provide great answers, all due to Physics 210...thanks Professor Greg! :)
As of last Wednesday, I've been back at the office mindlessly typing away, adding to our marine industry database one Excel line at a time. I am hoping that one day in the near future, I will hear about a company in South Africa setting up a wind farm in the Eastern Cape so that I can say that I was a part of that process, as small as that part was!
