Freediver Rethaa Karriem treads water off the coast of Cape Town at False Bay.
Sea-ing is believing for two Cape Town freedivers who are using freediving, photography and direct immersion to reveal the beauty and fragility of the city’s marine life. Ahead of Marine Protected Areas Day, which is observed globally on August 1, the duo hope to raise awareness of Cape Town’s marine protected areas while showing the city from a different perspective. Freediver Rethaa Karriem said: “Nature is always the protagonist.
Freediver Rethaa Karriem in the kelp forest at False Bay.
"People are not superimposed on nature. People are part of nature and that is what we try to show through photography and experience," freediver Rethaa Karriem said.
Karriem, a qualified freediver who has been diving for a year and a half, knows the coast well and dives “as often as he can”. Karriem developed a love for the ocean as a child through surfing and snorkelling, but it wasn’t until he became a freediver that he truly developed a deeper reverence for it.
