Let's get the 4u2fish campaign working

 Greetings from Frankie2Socks on this over caste  8 day of February 2024.

I have been a bit reluctant to push the 4u2fish campaign very hard, but after lots of thought and a few different conversations with independent thinking people and many folks here in St. Lucia, I have eventually decided to push the 4u2fish campaign into action.

The focus has shifted slightly, and the intentions, aims, objectives and purpose are a bit better defined, so outside folks will feel an awful lot better about many different aspects of the 4u2fish campaign.

The shift away from a totally environmental approach, to a tourism development approach, means that the public perception of the 4u2fish campaign can now be focused on the desired outcome and not the troublesome start position, which is the situation on the ground here in St. Lucia KZN South Africa today, where very few beach access permits are issued through out the year. Only seriously disabled folks get to drive on the beach, after very difficult paperwork application.

The tourism associated with beach access is actually rather significant when one looks into the whole issue, and the community bennifits associated with improved tourism numbers is taken into account and put into the correct perspectives from a financial view point.

The number of job opportunities that are instantly created when reasonable motor vehicle access is granted to the public is truly thought provoking. The losses associated with the 4x4ban are hinted at here.

This document ( Occasional paper 20 ) issued by KZN TOURISM, hints at the fact that more than twenty thousand (20 000) folks lost their economic opportunities due to the knock on impacts of the 4x4ban and associated legislative actions put in place for environmental management purposes, which deliberately and with malice intent, excludes any economic or social issues, so job opportunities are lost, and our local communities are frustrated.

We do need to find a balance between economic issues, environmental issues, social issues and how these three rather different issues are all intertwined and intermarried in such a fashion that these three separate issues need to be managed as a single entity with three parts that are interlinked and managed co-operatively. 

If you are interested in being part of the management team which will push hard for tourism development issues associated with the recreational use of our coastal zones within Umkhanyakude District municipality, then send an email to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za

 There is one rather unfortunate problem, which is that every single beach within the Umkhanyakude District municipality is also within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site . 

So enjoy life, smile and do what is right for your personal well being first, then look after your own local community next. #Frankie2Socks. #4u2fish 

Update 28 October 2023 by Frankie2Socks

 Greetings from Frankie2Socks

Thanx for placing your eyeballs on my content. Once you have read here, please take the time and effort to 

(1) share this blog post with others

(2) subscribe to my blog posts here on this blog

(3) leave a comment or start a conversation

(4) ask other folks to do a search using their their personal devices (cell phones) or the bigger devices like a PC or using the latest means from their seats in their lounges using any one of the cable networks or their home office system set up to be interfaced with their TV at home

 As you should know if you have been following me, I go to the St. Lucia estuary mouth every morning. This is part and parcel of  information gathering and taking time to understand the dynamics of estuary management and the impacts on the ecology associated with the St. Lucia lake and estuary management process as well as action plans in place by various organisations with the main one being the IWPA or the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority. 

To read more about who or what the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is  visit their web site at www.isimangaliso.com  the IWPA is in place and very well structured to manage the affairs of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park World heritage site as declared in December 1999.

Visit their web site at www.isimangaliso.com and discover a wealth of knowledge and a very influential marketing machine driven by a cabpable team.

I need to start using the information gathered here  on the beaches of St. Lucia,  every morning, and related environmental data about our region and using my influence generated over time, within the online environment to manage the public perceptions and thinking strategies of you, the reader, along with many others... The issue is what you believe to be correct, may just be some other organisation manipulating the discussion to create a specific view on a specific topic for political or financial gain or both.

Misinformation , disinformation and righteous information are difficult to seperate and place in the correct box. Political and financial pressures can twist the public understanding of topics in strange and nasty ways. Then there is still the social issues and financial issues that creep into the picture. These social issues are rather huge, coz the financial generation that takes place around the exploitation (consumption) is really huge. Think of this in terms of the tonnes of prawns that are sold at supermarkets every where. If the lake was working properly we would be able to supply more than one hundred thousand tonnes of prawns per annum to the retail market

The ecological issues associated with the management of lake St.ucia and the St. Lucia esturine systems as well as the Umfolozi Flats and the Umfolozi esturine systems are strangely intertwined along with political interference with ecological issues to suit the local economy and produce well paying jobs through the capture, processing and sales of fish, crabs, prawns, oysters and other delicacies and the general agricultural use of the fresh water flood plains associated with the five different rivers feeding into lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems.

It is time for an update of the St. Lucia Estuary management plan, as part of the South African national I DP PROCESS. I DP or Integrated Development Plans are mandated by law these days, so the IWPA ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is forced by legislation to hold public participation process meetings. When and where is an issue that we need to keep our eyes and ears open for. If you here of any such meeting please advise us at 4u2fish@infi4u.co.za 

We need to attend these meetings in numbers

#Frankie2Socks 

In the past when one Andrew Zaloumis was the CEO at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority these mandated estuary management plans were held in secret and never discussed openly in any local IDP meeting held by the MtubaTuba municipality.

I do need to pay the Mtubatuba municipality a visit and find out about the current round of local municipality IDP process meetings to be held in January and February 2024. 

The #4u2fish campaign does need to be one better organized and properly funded.  So work is plentiful.

#Frankie2Socks 

#4u2fish 

Looking forward To 2023 and beyond

 Greetings from Frankie2Socks. 

The 4u2fish campaign is all about ensuring that we all ( Umkhanyakude residents) enjoy the fruits of the local tourism industry  which has a primary focus on #EnvironmentalTourism and associated tourism services, like fishing in lake St. Lucia,  fishing the St. Lucia estuary, Umfolozi mouth zone and fishing the adjacent Indian ocean.  

This all starts with a good heart, but things in resal life get all muddled and rather turbid like flood waters rushing towards the ocean.  So what is the 4u2Fish campaign going to be looking like in the near future and deep future ? 

Well that all depends on you, the reader here  and what you do about what you read here.,. Without folks talking about the 4u2Fish Campaign, we have lost even before we started. So the message here is talk about the 4u2Fish Campaign and ask questions around what the 4u2Fish management team is doing and why are they doing whatever it is that they are doing.

If information is not forth coming, then search for it on line using your favorite search engine or in your favorite social media platform. Find us and start a conversation 

The 4u2Fish management team needs help in many ways. Any body with some spare time, please send an email to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za explaing that you want to help and the team will get back to you just as soon as our resources allow us to.

Any and all help will be truly appreciated.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2Fish management team.

Ps have a great Christmas and enjoy what ever life gives you in the new year..... Good or not so good, just enjoy and be thankful for what you have, and not worry about what you want. Appreciate your health and enjoy every day like it is your last day. Life is great, so enjoy everything, and smile.,.  Coz you can ... 

Silt management in the St. Lucia estuary needs to be addressed

 The St. Lucia lake and estuary system has suffered a very serious biodiversity collapse following the 2017 GEF funded project that connected the Umfolozi River to lake St. Lucia and associated estuarine systems in the northern areas of the Greater St. Lucia wetlands park. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is the management authority for these lands.

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority pushed forward with this planned intervention, even though many folks here on the ground objected in the strongest possible terms.  Our objections fell on closed ears, and nobody had the resources or political will to take legal actions to stop the IWPA from pushing ahead and ensuring that any future flood waters coming from the Umfolozi River would take vast quantities of troublesome silt directly into the low energy tidal flow loops of the St. Lucia estuarine lake systems.

This troublesome silt is now sitting in the primary  estuarine basin and also in the early lake inlet zones at the northern edges of the St. Lucia Narrows

 (GPS ref -28.260434, 32.446320)  

Link to map  https://goo.gl/maps/YKJNF3KXDubqDbQEA   

These very serious and nasty silt deposits  now interfere with fish migratory routes as well as migratory routes of crabs, prawns and other creatures.  question now becomes how will we be able to repair these areas so that these migratory paths become functional.  

If these migratory routes remain dysfunctional for an extended time period, fish stocks along our entire coastline will start to decline.  the IWPA published a video that states that the St. Lucia lake and estuary system covers more than 60 percent of the fish breeding and fish nursery zones 

The mouth of the St. Lucia estuary system is currently(November 2022) open, but the water flow issues are not what they should be. The silt within these systems has ensured that there is no marine water retention in the system, 

marine water retention is needed for marine species that use the system as nursery grounds to actually survive between tidal cycles, from one high tide to the next. We do need some marine scientists to come and do a little research, then come back and tell us the true story, and not just pure speculation. 

Public participation process meetings are essential, but we have not seen any in recent years. the new planning season has been started, as the IWPA has a draft plan listed here  https://sahris.sahra.org.za/sites/default/files/additionaldocs/iSimangaliso%20Integrated%20Management%20Plan.pdf 

Please take a #peepsee then let us know how you think we should react.

your comments and views will be appreciated

THanx for reading here, looking forward to your comments.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fiah team 

Silt issues within the within the St. Lucia esturine systems

The 4u2fish campaign needs your help, especially your moral support and associated open discussions about environmental rights, duties and obligations of yourself and those around your neighborhoods.

I know we often talk of Environmental rights, but who talks about your Environmental obligations ?

Failure of our local municipalities to understand our Environmental obligations means that this important interpretation of environmental law is not discussed and considered during spatial development public participation processes meetings at local municipality levels.

Now the IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority falls into three of the four local municipalities of the Umkhanyakude district Municipality, which makes matters complicated, but the fact that the IWPA has influenced parliamentary stake holders into declaring a special District Management Area or DMA  complicates matters even more.

The question  to be asked here is "was this legal manoeuvre to separate the IWPA MANAGEMENT ISSUES from the influence of local municipality IDP processes, coz from our perspective, there was no public participation process involved in the preparation and legislative procedure involved in getting these issues through the parliamentary voting process, before being passed as laws.

To date, we are not aware of a single challenge to these rather nasty actions, which have given the IWPA much more powers than They should be allowed. Currently, the IWPA side steps many legally challenging issues, because they do not include local municipality zoning in their planning and management STRATEGIES.

The IWPA also uses these same arguments to side step district Municipality and KZN provincial planning structures. The IWPA does not even report to any national government department, but reports directly to the office of the state president. This makes planning a very difficult activity within the fishing industries associated with our natural renewable resources of Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary  systems. The St. Lucia estuary system accounts for more than 60 percent of the available estuarine fish breeding and nursery areas in South Africa. 

The IWPA actually published a video discussing these issues, where they inform the world that there has been a rather serious biodiversity collapse, where the prawn fishing industry collapsed following the closure of the St. lucia nad Umfolozi estuarine mouths.

WE do need to remember that there was a two mouth policy, and what was the reason for the two mouth policy. When one investigates this just a little, one soon discovers that the two mouth policy was all about the sediment that came along with the Umfolozi Flood waters., and ensuring that the silt from the Umfolozi flood waters was drastically minimized due to the slowing down of the Umfolozi Flood waters in the Umfolozi Flood plains prior to this flood waters entering the greater St. Lucia estuarine lake systems in the northern sections of the greater St. Lucia wetlands park. 

IN the post 2017 time frame, this silt reduction was eliminated because the Umfolozi flood waters then entered the northern sections of the St. Lucia lake systems at full flow speed, carrying vast volumes of silt into the northern sections of the St. Lucia lake systems.  The question thus becomes where did this nasty silt drop out of the Umfolozi River Flood waters. 

River silt is a strange issue, as the silt does not drop out evenly across the surface area that is flooded by the silt laden flood waters. The silt drops out at the specific location where the water slows down, and only the super fine silt moves off into the vast open spaces of the rest of the system.

This can be very confusing if one does not take just a little time to understand the issues at playhere.

Fast moving river flood waters can carry plenty of heavy silt, but slow movingving flood waters can not carry heavy silt. The color of the water is not the issue, but the volume of heavy silt deposited at the points where the water slows down is the real issue. The flood waters from the Umfolozi river flow rather fast up the St. Lucia narrows and slow down when the flood waters meet the still lake waters and then spread out and come to a very slow moving wide open space. This means that the Umfolozi Flood waters drop the heavy silt in a rather small space, and continue to drop out  heavy silt in the same location as the lake level slowly raises. 

The heavy silt thus produces / manufactures a silt wall where the Umfolozi Flood waters enter the lake system and fan out from a fast moving narrow stream into  a very wide area where the flood water  move rather sluggishly.. This continues for the duration of the incoming flood waters, for 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours a day.  

This silt wall has now become a nasty problem, coz the lake system now suffers an energy deficiency and can not move the rather large silt wall that remains in the system until it is mechanically removed (Dredged out / mechanically removed) this silt wall now prevents the lake system from interacting with the tidal influence of the ocean.  No access for the marine species that breed within the lake systems is now impossible.  Access to the ocean for prawns to migrate to their ocean based breeding grounds is also now an issue. This means that the juvenile recruitment of many different creatures is now a non issue.  This means that these species that rely on the access routes to their breeding grounds have declined in numbers to such an extent that the food chain is now non functional and in dire need of human help.See this video 

There are many qualified scientists who are truly ignorant and say that nature must take its course.  These very stupid  sceintists now need to please explain how the environment must restore or repair the serious damage caused by human interventions carried out when the GEF 2017 project connected the flood waters of the Umfolozi river to the lake system, deliberately and with criminal intent bypassing the natural filter systems in place prior to their interventions.

These same ignorant and stupid sceintific experts need tp please explain how they measured the silt volumes in the Umfolozi River flood waters, and why they ignored our requests to include this essential information in their estuary management plans.  

The 4u2fish campaign needs your help to put political pressure on the IWPA to address these environmental concerns. 

Sand dunes and the St. Lucia estuary issues

 Greetings to all who read here. It is Thursday  20 October 2022 and WE need to do something soon, coz the problems are growing faster than the solutions are being discussed, never mind the implementation issues.

The April / May 2022 floods have caused many different problems, and in my mind, the biggest problem for our fish breeding grounds is the vast quantiles of silt that has dropped out at the most inconvenient places for nature to have any chances of restoring any sanity to the now dysfunctional natural breeding grounds for many marine fish species and other creatures like crabs, jellyfish and prawns that used to flourish in our local ecosystems within the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park.

One needs to remember that the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth was closed when these flood waters struck our waterways in May 2022. These many different waterways, in the area each have distinct and separate issues. some of these water ways  that matter more are 

1. The Northern sections of Lake ST. Lucia
2. the tidal interaction channels between The Northern sections of the lake and the Ocean itself
3. Hells gate and the Nibela peninsula / False bay lake zones
4. Makataan swamp forest and adjacent fresh water input zones
5. The immediate Mouth Zone where the Umfolozi and Mzunduze river interact with the Tidal interaction channels as in 2 above
6. The tidal zone at the mouth and tidal interactions of
7. (a) the Umfolozi river
8. (b) the Umzunduse tributary of the Umfolozi river
9. the Umfolozi flats and associated banana farms on both the North banks and South Banks of the Umfolozi River
10. the Monzi sugar lands and associated flat lands
11. The Umfolozi flats
12. the Sokhulu sand flats
13. the Mapelane  swamp lands
14. Teza Pan and associated waterways

another issue to consider is that the lake water levels were already a bit high when the big rains in May 2022 struck our waterways with a rather intense speed. The speed that the Umfolozi River flood waters entered the northern sections of the lake needs to be properly understood, as does the vast quantity of river-born silt that dropped out at the zone where the Narrows opens up and fans out into the Sothern edge of lake St. Lucia. 

 

This caused a rather large un-natural blockage to grow into a nasty problem. coz when the mouth opened due to rising flood waters, the water within the Northern sections of the lake was trapped, and did not have the energy to remove the waterborne sediments that had accumulated in the system, at the spot where the water slowed down,  due to the GEF 2017 project, which connected the Umfolozi river directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, bypassing the natural silt traps of the Umfolozi flats, the Monzi flood plains and the other lower areas near Sokhulu and Mapelane. this silt dropuut was hectic.

So the vast amounts of silt that came along for the ride in the April / May Floods and dropped out at various problem zones needs to be clearly understood, as this silt is now problematic in many different areas. At the Mouth of the ST. Lucia estuary, the reeds, sedges, grasses and other riverine plants have enjoyed this silt and are now doing very well. These are all growing in the mud flats, which should be sand flats,  These well-established plants are now acting as a final sand arrestor, at the western end of the fast-growing sand dunes that are getting very problematic. this wind born sediment is joining the water-born sediment and forming a distinct top layer which is fast turning the mud layer into very hard bentonite-enriched  sand sludge that will soon be setting into very nasty river-born sediment and other  stuff.  

What would this be called? we need some scientists to come and explain more about this  cement-like stuff to the public so that the public can start to use this information to force the issues and ensure that we get government interventions and make sure that our fish breeding grounds are repaired and made functional before too much damage is caused, coz with ZERO juvenile recruitment there will soon be no fish. If our fish breeding grounds are not functional there will be no juvenile recruitment.

So please help the 4u2fish campaign to put pressure on the relevant political structures so that the problem can be addressed as soon as possible. read more at our FB Pages facebook.com/4u2fish

October 2022 udate to a 2018 post disussing marine water flow

 It is now October 2022 and the mouth of the St. Lucia estuary is currently open.  but ... there are now even bigger problems, coz the silt that came along for the ride, during the April / May 2022 floods, and stayed behind in problem zones,  is preventing the flood waters from returning to the ocean.

I am not an artist, and can't find somebody to draw a few pics to explain the issue, so let us test my storytelling skills.. and find out if I can tell the rather nasty story around the silt issue in just words...with no images...

Well, the story is all about the SILT and debris that come along with flood waters.

So when water is flowing fast it can pick up stuff and carry that stuff along for the ride. what stuff are we talking about here? Well, any small loose stuff like topsoil, leaves, dead grass, plastic bags, and any wind-blown items. this all ends up in the river.

So not all this stuff ends up at the bottom end of the water flow pattern, which is the ocean. Sea water evaporates, it rains, the rainwater flows back into the sea then the cycle continues. but the debris and stuff carried to the lower end of the water flow cycle is the issue.  this stuff can not be evaporated by the sun, so it just accumulates and accumulates more.   Now the 2017 GEF-funded project which connected the Umfolozi River System to the Northern sections of Lake St. Lucia needs to be very carefully added to the narrative here, coz this nasty crime against the environment was supported with great vigour and pleasure by the IWPA, which had alternative agendas that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority needed to address. 

Removing the natural renewable resources from the local environment would suit these guys (IWPA) very nicely, coz that would bankrupt the local folks, and thus prevent them from acquiring legal assistance during their expulsions from the area,  why? coz t is a world heritage site, so the locals must pack up their bags and leave.   The locals however showed the IWPA a very big toffee, and basically stayed put, and are now indigent and living in a space that should be abounding with nature, but is a rather nasty-looking space where drought has taken its toll, and the environment is in a very bad way.

The fact that the elites operating high-end International tourism businesses from the town / village of St Lucia, see these local folks as "POACHERS" and undesirable is due to the extremely successful public perception management strategies applied by one ANDREW ZALOUMIS as CEO of the IWPA, following instructions from the national tourism bodies... Remember the Transfrontier park Any way let's focus on the mud stuff.

If water is carrying stuff (SILT) along coz it has some speed, where will this stuff all end up? 

Well, that answer is simple... wherever the water slows down... the slower it gets the more stuff drops out.  Now the issue suddenly becomes where does the water slow down enough to cause dropouts to start happening?

Now the area from the N2  (National Road) to the ocean is rather far, about 25 KM, and with some twists and turns in the Umfolozi River pathway, that ends up at around 30 Km. Within this space, the Umfolozi river floods its banks and starts filling up the Monzi flood plains, the Umfolozi flats, the Sokhulu swamps and Mapelane bogs, but still flows rather strong in the true flow zone. 

the water flowing in the true flow zone of the Umfolozi River soes not actually slow down, and rushes along carrying its silt load all the way, back inalnd through the St. Lucia narrows, coz of the 2017 GEF Project.

This means that the water in the true flow zone is still carrying gross volumes of silt.  During the last few years in the post-2017 GEF project years, this has repeated many times over, with enormous volumes of silt being deposited at the Northern edges of the narrows, where the St. Lucia Narrows join the ST. Lucia lake system, at the lake's most southern tip. 

So the Northern end of the narrows (Fast flowing water) meets the Southern edge of the lake,(Standing water)  and then stops flowing instantly.  This causes the most horrid scenario where the silt just builds a big wall of heavy silt dropouts.  

During flood times the water arrives at this build point shown in the Google Map Below, and this is serious.  coz why? coz the silt carrying water continues to arrive   .. and continues for days, last time in the April / May 2022 floods the water carried on coming for more than 6 weeks... think about that for six weeks !!!!!!

60 seconds in a minute... then

60 minutes in an hour... then

24 hours a day... 

then 7 days a week ...   

for six weeks?   6 whole weeks..?

All this water was carrying silt, and the silt all dropped out where the water slowed down...  the wall that is still there now is a true nasty problem, and we as human beings need to do something, coz we as human beings caused that silt to rnd up in that space. If nature was left to take its own course, this would never have happened. The mouth would have opened, and the silt would have been deposited in the ocean. The ocean is a high-energy zone, and the silt would have been distributed over a very large area, causing minimal negative impacts. The opposite is now true, where the silt has accumulated in a very small area, and now acts as a dam wall keeping the Umfolozi Flood waters within the Lake St. Lucia system.

St. Lucia estuary and lake management basics

So  Where is the St. Lucia lake system ?

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems are in northe east Zululand. KZN South Africa. The primary fresh water infkow how ever comes from the Umfolozi River and its tributaries. So the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems start just South West of Mapelane the stretch all the way north, both inland and along the Elephant coast as far north as the Mkuze swamps, where the Mkuze river and it's tributaries enter the St. Lucia lake system through the Mkhuze Swamps.

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems form the core base of the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site.  iSimangaliso wetland park covers the area from just South  Mapelane, where the Jolly Rubino still lies on the coastal sand banks, until Kozi Baymouth  at  the Mozambique border in the North,  and inland for quite some way, crossing the N2,  (National Road) which connects zulu Land to the rest of South Africa.

The St. Lucia estuary and lake systems are thus in the southeast corner of the Umkhanyakude District municipality of KZN South Africa. map names in South Africa is an issue, as name changes for political purposes is common practice for us here

 The lake system runs parallel with the Indian ocean coastline, and stretches quite far north all the way to the Mkhuze Swamps, then a little more north at the extreme northeastern corner. In the old days, one could thus travel a little over 60 Km from the estuary mouth to the furthermost navigable point of Lake St. Lucia. All five rivers add fresh (sweet) water into the St Lucia lake and estuary systems.

The biggest estuary management problem is the silt contained within the rivers feeding the lake and estuary systems. Managing the sediment inflow is thus a  major part of estuary management. 

Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems is within the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site, and the iSimangaliso wetland park Authority is the legally appointed custodian of the iSimangaliso wetland park world heritage site. This makes the IWPA  or iSimangaliso wetland park Authority the responsible juristic person who is responsible for the St. Lucia lake and estuary ecological and environmental management.

This short video discusses the IWPA estuary  the management tactics and the impacts of these estuarine management tactics within the iSimangaliso wetland park. 

The 4u2fish campaign needs your support.

 The management team at the 4u2fish campaign needs help. We need folks  to read our blog posts, face book posts and view our  other social media efforts

The rather nasty biodiversity losses within lake St. Lucia in the Ssimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site, caused by silt deposits of the Umfolozi River need to be addressed.  These water flow blockages are very significant, and rather problematic.

These ecological water flow blockages are problems which  have been escalated by the 2017 GEF PROJECT which connected the Umfolozi River directly to the lake systems in the northern regions, bypassing the natural filters of the Umfolozi flats, monzi flood planes and Mzunduse run off wetlands. This  should be expanded on within the web pages of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority

If you do not find any information on their pages please use their contact pages to find what you are looking for.

Perhaps your requests will make a difference.

Thanx for reading here.

Frankie2Socks  .Frankie2Socks@info4u.co.za 

St. Lucia estuary mouth is closing!

 This pic was taken on Saturday 11  June 2022.  The St. Lucia estuary mouth is where three water sources meet. First is the Umfolozi River mouth. Next is the lake tidal link and the third is the Indian ocean. In the past. The Umfolozi and Mzundusi overflow were managed separately from the lake tidal link. The main reasoning behind this separation was the vast quantities of silt within the Umfolozi River flood waters. 

The 2017 GEF PROJECT ignored this silt factor,  and the scientists appointed by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ran a very effective public perception management strategy to endure that the public accepted their rather nasty proposal to link the Umfolozi River directly to the rest of the St. Lucia lake systems, in their efforts to get water into the St. Lucia lake systems.

The results are now evident as can be seen here. Silt has settled in nasty places and clogged up the inter-tidal flow paths  Mud, mud and more mud  now needed to be removed.  This is going to be difficult.

What ideas do you have that may help us solve this problem ?

Got an idea ?  One that may help solve the problem ! Send it to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za

 

The silt levels within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems is  much worse than the IWPA is telling.  The tidal link between the lake and estuary systems is now a thing of the past, but we need this tidal channel to work so that the fish breeding and nursery grounds may become functional.  the St. Lucia lake  system used to sustain more than 60 percent of all fish breeding grounds in South Africa.  This is now not available to our fish stocks. thus is a rather nasty problem, and our marine fish stocks are suffering a very disturbing loss of juvenile recruitment , meaning that this is leading to a collapse of our coastal fish stocks.

what to do ?  everybody appears to be ignoring these losses of nursery grounds for our coastal marine fishes.

how will we bring this problem into the foreground of nature conservation and the management of our local  natural renewable resources ?

any help will be appreciated.   see our Facebook pages at facebook.com/4u2fish and leave a comment discussing your views on this nasty problem.

Silt from the Umfolozi River closes narrows and related mudflats

It is now June 2022, and the impacts of the GEF PRJECT (2017)  are being felt in the northern sections of Lake St. !uca, in the iSimangaliso Wetland park world heritage site. The assive  silt wall that forms the blockage cross the northern adges of the narrows is currentlybetween 2.5 and3  meters vertical above spring tide high water mark.

When the GEF PROJECT was implemented in early 2017 the contractors , who were paid by the IWPA, ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) connected the Umfolozi River directly to the southern sections of the St. Lucia estuary, ensuring that there was a flow path for the water from the Umfolozi River to flow directly in to the southern sections of lake St. Lucia at the northern edges of the estuary narrows. The mining spoil was deposited between the river flow path and the ocean. This mining spoil was flattened by big bulldozers and the excess was just pushed into the ocean.

This wall between the ocean and the river ensured that the river would not easily break open a channel to connect the river to the ocean. The proof off this statement is the physical height that the flood waters rose before actually opening the mouth on 14 April 2022 

So how did this big silt wall at the top end of the narrows grow so high ? 

Well this is he  start of the narrows as it flows from the lake systems into the estuary system. This is where the river water would join the lake water, slowing down to a sudden halt with slow swirling actions, dropping silt in the same location with each flood event. The silt deposits here were very significant. When the Umfolozi River floods, it carries huge volumes of silt. A fair volume of this silt ends up on the Umfolozi floodplains, but due to the activities of the GEF PROJECT the flood waters were not entirely attenuated within the Umfolozi Flats, so a fairly large volume of silt laden waters flowed in the GEF PROJECT prefered water flow paths, ensuring that the silt dropout zone remained static and geographically stable allowing the silt to settle and build up within the vast reed beds that have grown where there should be tidal water flows. 

This blockage grew and expanded  into a vast reed bed, which ensured that the next, and all subsequent flood event would use the same silt drop out zone, making the blockage a perminant part of the landscape. Smaller flood events soon failed to climb over this blockage, which ensured that the areas undervwater due to so called z#BACKFLOODING had all the fines and duper fines within the silt load drop out there where it is not welcome. One just needs to look at the dead mangroves along the estuary banks to see the nasty impacts of silt. The  fine silt prevents the mangrove roots from breathing, eventually killing the plant.

So each new flood event had to first nuid up to the top of this disturbingly big blockage before filing the lake further. Now once again the silt dropout zone would still be this well reeded blockage, making this blockage grow rather suppringy with each flood event. The last flood event which caused the Breach of the St. Lucia estuary mouth on 14 April 2022 left a considerable sit load ontop of this blockage. This is very evident and highly visible, coz the water levels in the northern sections of the lake are still not dropping. The silt loads in the system need to be explained  !

The estuary sceintists knew about  this issue of excessive silt but chose to ignore the silt issue altogether. This was a deliberate and intionio!!

!?nal decision .., many folks tried to raise the issue, but #UncleAndrew and his paid team also made sure that the public also ignored the silt issue, and gave the IWPA a MANDATE to push the GEF PROJECT s nthat it became a reality, and they physically connected the Umfolozi River directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, side stepping the natural filter systems in the Umfolozi River  flood plains and Monzi flats .

This was a very serious and drastic change to the silt loads introduced into the Lake St Lucia systems. Yhiscwas a never before sceintific experiment, and it has had some very nasty side impacts.  The changes to the waterflow patters of the lakes is really scary. What are we gonna do ? !!!

This means that the lake systems are no longer tidal,. As there is a very high sand bar / silt barrier between the lake systems and the esturine neater ways that connect the lake to the ocean.

Any ideas on your part ?

Leave a comment!

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish Campaign 

estuary managment in South Africa is getting attemtion from the govermenet

Estuary Management in South Africa has been neglected by the government for some time.  The issues around harvesting, consumption and sales of natural renewable resources within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site has caused a stir at parliamentary level, and the portfolio management committee for the Department of Forestry, Fisheries  and Environment has been discussing the related issues in detail.

The minister requested a scientific review of the reasons behind the Jan 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia Estuary, and this is about to get lots of attention. Some back ground info can be gleamed form this YouTube video.

 The minister has launched the report discussing reasons for Jan 2021 breach of the St. Lucia estuary. 

more about the issues around the Jan 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia estuary by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority 

#Frasnkie2Socks

#4u2fish 

the 4u2fish campaign supports the 7474dash21 campaign

The 7474dash21 campaign is in place to raise funds for us (4u2fish Campaign) to raise funds for our legal action against the minister and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.

This is a very complicated affair, where access to and sales of natural renewable resources is at stake. The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland park Authority has iplimented policies and regulations that makes harvesting of natural renewable resources illegal. This is violating our economic rights in terms of section 24 (b)III

This is a huge problem as there are many different local communities who have been using these renewable natural resources as a  abstantial portion of their personal income and living resources. With these natural renewable sources out of the picture, these folks are in real economic distress, and basically destitute

which way to move and how to take legal actions against the authorities and relevant government departments which are violating our economic rights in terns of section 24 (b) (iii) is quite a serious issue. finding a legal team who are willing to take on the negative feed back and associated public critisism  from the GREENIES like those who ensured that the 4x4 Ban was successfully implemented is rather difficult. The reason here is the very high level, government assisted public perception management strategies which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) have implemented over the years. this has caused a major misconception within the public debate spaces and associated news paper 

Our best bet is to sue the Minister of Environmental Affairs for violation of our economic rights . We have started by requesting the public Protector to investigate these matters, and our file reference number  with the Public Protector is 7474 /  21 / KZN

more info coming just as soon as we have the resources to put it here and make any such info available to you our valued readers. so please subscribe to this blog should you want to be kept upto date with the issues connected to the FUNCTIONALITY OF THE ST. LUCIA ESTUARY SYSTEM .

My Good Friend Petrus Viviers runs a few YouTube Channels discussing many of the issues that impact on the ecology and related domestic tourism associated with a functional estuary and lake system Take a #PEEPSEE at his work and get informed about the St. Lucia Experience

Other links the St. Lucia Experience

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to visit Nibela on 1Drvrmber 2021

 The issuesurs of lost biodiversity within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is about to boil over into mass a tion by some negatively charged folks, who's forefathers have fished lake St. Lucia and surrounding waterways since before the times of SHAKA ZULU.

This biodiversity loss has been caused, then exacerbated by the management style and related policies, procedures, actions and inactions of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.

The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is the mandated Juristic person in terms of the World Heritage Convention act and associated legislations, which is appointed by the minister to manage the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site.

It is thus the duty of the IWPA to manage all the Environmental assets within the park, in the interests of the land owner as well as all of us as South African citizens , and ensure that the rights we had before the area was declared a world heritage site are not erroded or denied for any reason  or by any actions taken by the IWPA.

The government has introduced many new laws, acts and legislations since the IWPA took office in December 1999

The one that we are concerned about is the Integrated Coastal Management Act, which mandates estuary management plans for all estuaries in South Africa at three distinct and seperate levels. National, provincial, and local.

So the question becomes who is responsible for the local government component of the St. Lucia estuary management plan ? 

Because of the way that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site was declared as a DMZ or district Management Area, to ensure that local municipality influence was removed from the IWPA PLANNING mandates, it is our opinion that the IWPA should take excludive responsibility for the negative economic impacts caused by the current (December 2021) biodiversity problems within lake St. Lucia and surrounding esturine systems, including the Umfolozi flats and Sokhulu flood plains.

It is the IWPA duty and mandate to ensure that our rights to access natural renewable resources are protected and enshrined in the IWPA plans, policies and Procedures. The IWPA has failed miserably here, and needs to be taken to task by the minister. We will be pushing hard for this at the meeting on 1 December, where to buyhe disappearance of a local fisherman during a anti poaching opperation within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park along the northern sections of Eastern shores in mid November 2021 is the main item on the agenda.

Feed back will follow on December 2 

#Frankie2Socks

Panel of experts discuss St. Lucia estuary management issues

St. ucia lake and estuary systems stake holder engagement meeting held at Elephant lake hotel, in St. Lucia on 15 and 16 November 2021

St. Lucia lake and estuary systems stake holder engagement meeting held at Elephant lake hotel, in St. Lucia on 15 a

Meeting notes and feed back for online audience.

#Frankie2Socks attended the first three legs on behalf of the #4u2fish campaign.

1. Agriculture on Umfolozi Flats and surrounding areas

2. Tourism issues in St. Lucia toursim node

3. Fishing issues within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park focusing on estuary and lake issues

The first two legs were well attended with suitable representatives who were knowledgeable on their areas of concern. The third leg where fishing was the core theme was very poorly attended with just three concerned citizens showing their faces (including myself #Frankie2Socks)

The purpose of these stake holder engagement meetings was defined each time as being a source of information for the panel . What the panel instruction was or is was not discussed in depth, besides that this panel will make a recommendation to the minister on a way forward regarding the ecological and Environmental MANAGEMENT of the St. Lucia lake and estuarine systems.

One  person from Khula area arrived late, coz he found out about the meeting late. He represented some  land claimants in the area, but did not make a presentation, as he was not prepared. He did however say most of the same things that others had said at earlier stake holder meetings, which was very helpful in putting one solid well supported story in the picture,  and not a bunch of separate private issues and individual petty complaints.

All stake holders were on the same page at each meeting. All stake holders require a functional estuary system, and all stake holders have issues with the manner in which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority behave and interact with the public and our concerns about our livlihoods. 

All four of us pushed the same core theme, that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are responsible for the current catastrophic collapse of the biodiversity within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems.

During all three sessions the core complaint was that the estuary is nonfunctional, and the silt levels within these interconnected systems are unacceptable and exceptionally problematic to remove, as tidal ebb and flow will not have the scouring power needed to agitate, then pick up and remove this SILT.

The panel of experts did seem to understand our concerns, and asked some relevant questions. This panel of experts is set to deliver their findings and recommendations in March 2022, which is on the other side of our rainy season. We are currently in an extended drought, from the late 1980's so we do have serious issues with water quantity and quality. Then there is so called GLOBAL WARMING which is somehow not properly in the picture.

The amount of silt that will enter our lake and esturine systems before actions are taken to separate the Umfolozi mud stream from the St. Lucia  lake system in the far north is going to cause some real nasty problems. The burm between the Estuary systems and the ocean is (currently Nov 2022) quite high, and wind born sediments coming from the North are accumulating on the burm, growing it higher. This wind born sediment is rather serious, as the beaches between first rocks and the estuary mouth are currently rather long,  in some cases being in excess of 500 meters at low tide. This can change overnight with one big wind and associated sea current moving all this sand in less than 24 hours.

So things are dynamic, and can change Rather suddenly. These sudden changes will not, and can not remove compacted dried silt on the estuary basins or the water flow channels due to the excessive reed growth within the system which was exacerbated by the 2017 ecological and Environmental terrorist activity by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, ( GEF PROJECT) which was sanctioned and approved by the minister. 

The joining of the Umfolozi River and the northern sections of the lake was a true disaster, which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority put forward as REHABILITATION. 

This so called rehabilitation was in my mind not rehabilitation, but an active ecological disaster in the making. Over the years the Umfolozi River has been manipulated by different groups, and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority has contributed greatly to these bad river management tactics through their attitude towards problem solving and being extremely autocratic and non co-opperstive at many levels, including the local municipality IDP PROCESS,  which the IWPA refuses to acknowledge and participate in, claiming "WORLD HERITAGE STATUS" 

This needs to be addressed, as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park no longer meets the criteria for world heritage status, and many folks would now like the area to be stripped of this world heritage status as things have just deteriorated since the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority took over management of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park way back in December 1999. Name changes aside, this management structure is not conducive to co-,operative governance and this task team investigating the estuary management issues needs to be pro-active and place blame for bad decisions  where it belongs.

Folks here on the ground tried many different approaches to discuss these problematic issues with the IWPA, but AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP by the Andrew Zaloumis management team at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) did just as they please. This management team should be held accountable for their actions, and be criminally charged with crimes against the environment.

The panel of experts was tasked to hold stake holder engagement meetings, then generate a report on the way forward as far as estuarine management of the St. Lucia lake and connected estuarine rivers within the iSimangaliso  Park World Heritage site and surrounding areas is concerned. One of the panel members is a hydrologic specialist with deep level knowledge of waterflow and related  siltation load distribution factors. The rest of the team are mostly involved in socioeconomic studies, so we are hopefully on a good wicket, but ball tampering and damaged bats are an issue of concern. In the past those appointed by the minister have not played fair, and team selection was for party political purposes and not outcome driven.   Let's hope this team has been selected to achieve community engagement and good relationships between all role players. 

Let's hope that the panel of experts puts forward in their recommendations that  Andrew Zaloumis along with his management team need to be held accountable, and that criminal charges be laid against them for CRIMES AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENT which is now unable to support the ecological processes that ensure the natural renewable resources within lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems is functional and able to sustain the local economy of the area in question.

The Andrew Zaloumis management team has prepared the area for mining, the lake and estuary systems are silted beyond the point of no return, and now the only solution is to remove the silt load mechanically.

This problem was created by deliberately, and with criminal intent,  by passing the natural filter system of the Umfolozi Flats, and allowing the Umfolozi mud stream to drop it's silt load within the extreme northern sections of the lake, where nature can not create sufficient water flow volumes to scour the bottom of the lake and the rest of the St. Lucia estuary systems. 

What to do ?

 Which path to take? 

How can we solve these problems ?

Your views and comments will be helpful in establishing a better path forward. 

 Please share and ask others to share as well. We need diverse opinions and open minds to solve this rather nasty problem which was exacerbated by the Andrew Zaloumis management team at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, when they implemented the GEF PROJECT,  even after being warned of the drastic silt problems that would follow, which we now need to remove by mechanical means. 

The Andrew Zaloumis management team need to be held accountable for the biological and biodiversity collapse within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site. 

Looking forward to the next step along the path to restoring the functionality of the St Lucia Estuary and lake systems.

The #4u2fish campaign is greatful to our sponsors and those who made attending these meetings possible.

Black Hawk Security supplied transport to and from the meetings.

Accommodation in St Lucia supplied by Bundu Basher Inn 

Research and internet publication by Info4u and associates. 

Social media marketing by #Frankie2Socks and associates

Our first Stakeholders Engagement meeting with DEFF

 #PUBLICNOTICE

STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING.

The department of Forestry Fisheries and Environment will be holding a SPECIAL STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING in the St. Lucia area discussing the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth management from 15 to 16 November 2021.

This is big for us at the 4u2Fish campaign. It is our first major event we will be attending. Most of these type of public participation processes meetings bhave been held in secret in the past. Well at least that is our perspective, coz the marketing / advertising for such meetings has been exceptionally poor, and few folks have attended.

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is the government appointed body which runs the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site, and they have been mandated by a vast number of different laws and legislations to have an IMP (Integrated Management Plan) in place. The Integrated Coastal Management Act dictates three levels of estuary management plans.

1) local government level

2) provincial level 

3) national 

Due to how the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) has been structured and  their mandate from central government, the IWPA is the responsible agent to implement the local government level mandated Estuary Management plan.  This mandated estuary manager plan is by rights meant to be a sub plan of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority  Integrated Management Plans

Now this is where things start to ge tout of hand, and every body starts avoiding responsibility, side stepping mandated public participation processes meetings (STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING)  and making plans that exclude some of the bigger stake holder groups, with the IWPA ignoring many of their other mandated responsobilities in terms of the world heritage convention act. 

The 4u2fish campaign would be truly apprciative if you could share this post and ask others to make a plan and either send a person to represent your interests or be there yourself. 

Violation of our economic rights in terms of section 24 of the South African Constitution

 Rights violations

Rights violations in terms of section 24 (b) (iii)  of the South African Constitution are rather complicated issues. Especially when one talks of our economic rights, which come along for the ride but, are ULTRA Important aspects of the intent of the law.

PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION TO THE PREMIER OF KZN

Now as discussed in the 4x4 BAN blog pages here #Section24 of our constitution discusses our collective environmental rights, and we all, as South African citizens, , have the constitutional right to make reasonable economic gains through the sales and consumption of our local renewable natural resources.

Section 24

Section 24 of the South African Constitution does not discriminate between Juristic Persons or Natural Persons which makes some issues less complicated and others more complex. Section 24 of the South African Constitution also views renewable natural resources in the same light as non renewable natural resources, which is very helpful for us as consumers of natural renewable resources within the coastal environment of South Africa.

Section 24 of the South African Constitution is our lever to pull, and institute a claim of violation of our collective economic rights, which are disguised within our Environmental rights as a Ryder, which the mining industry use to ensure mining rights.

If the Economic Ryder within section 24 of the South African Constitution, which the mining industry uses to ensure that their access to natural non renewable resources, is not denied, was not in place, the South African mining industry would not exist and Environmental activists would have closed down all mining activities within South Africa a very long time ago.

Mining Rights and fishing rights

So we as environmental activists, who want our local environment protected and restored to natural functionality, where our renewable natural resources can flourish, need to use these same clauses within section 24 of the South African Constitution ( which the mining industry uses ) to acquire access rights, consumption rights and sales rights to the natural renewable resources within lake St Lucia and surrounding waterways within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site in KZN South Africa

Now being a world heritage site does complicate these issues of rights to both non renewable natural resources and renewable natural resources, but we need to remember that legislations associated with the world heritage convention act also guarantee us as South Africans that any rights we had before the area was declared a world heritage site, would not just disappear, but that we would maintain those rights.

Before the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park was declared a world heritage site in December 1999, we as citizens of South Africa had the right to consume the natural renewable resources of the St. Lucia estuary system. The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority do not appreciate the economic Ryders in section 24 (b) (iii)  of the South African Constitution, and as such the IWPA has introduced legislations to ensure that our access rights, consumption rights and economic rights associated with the renewable natural resources of lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system have been eroded, denied, and criminalized.

This criminalization of our collective environmental rights by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, previously known as the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park Authority, has caused great hardships and really nasty economic problems and associated social distress for the folks of Umkhanyakude district Municipality. 

What happened

So how did this situation come about and what can we as residents of Umkhanyakude district Municipality do to restore our economic rights, consumption rights and associated access rights.

Well this violation of our collective environmental rights happened because the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, through ROD's ( Records Of Decision) Legislative processes as well as well as actions and activities of their predecessor, the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands park Authority, which excluded true and meaningful public participation in the mandated integrated management plans of the park. ( IWPA IMP )

Now we do need to remember that the greater St. Lucia Wetlands park had a name change forced upon it through actions taken by the United Nations who manage international issues associated with world heritage sites, where UNESCO was the main driver of this name change. This name change became necessary when the Island of St. Lucia in the caribbeans also acquired world heritage status and confusion existed about which St. Lucia world heritage site was being discussed.

We got a new name for our world heritage site here in Zulu Land, South Africa, so as to remove the confusion. This name change was just that. A name change. This was a name change and not anything else.

No rights, duties, Obligations or any legal matters were impacted by this name change from Greater St. Lucia Wetlands park to iSimangaliso wetland park. How ever the guys that actually managed the world heritage site at the time, thought very different, and they used this name change to adjust the way that they viewed and implemented many laws and legislations. The Andrew Zaloumis management team at the IWPA were rather ruthless, and used this name change and related legislations to their advantage in many strange and devious ways. 

The first was by excludung local municipalities and provincial authorities from their zone of influence by claiming that the IWPA as the custodians of a World Heritage site, are above these two levels of governance, and so only report to national government.

There were many other issues, but those are for other discussions but this discussion and related conversations is about our socio - economic and Environmental rights.

This makes things rather complicated and allows the IWPA many advantages to hide things away and side step a number of issues that impact on the local Municipality and provincial management activities and actions. Municipal planning strategies are problematic, as the IWPA falls into three of the four local municipalities within Umkhanyakude district Municipality.

Mtubtuba

Big 5 Hlabisa

Umhlanuyalingana

This assumption of powers and management duties by the Andrew Zaloumis management team at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority left many folks on the ground confused and perplexed. The IWPA did not submitt their IMP's or Integrated Management Plans to the local municipalities, thus allowing the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority to evade the mandated public participation process meetings mandated by legislations associated with the national planing act.

The IWPA did not, and still does not include their IMP development strategies and planning at 

Local Municipality IDP level

District Municipality IDP level

Provincial IDP level

The IWPA STILL CLAIM that because they are a world heritage site management team, they are above local Municipality laws, district Municipality laws and provincial management teams get similar treatment being told to speak to the national department. 

This attitude by the IWPA management team is currently being addressed internally, as the new IWPA MANAGEMENT TEAM has a different view on public participation and is keen to get the local rural populations living adjacent to the park to be included at all levels. 

This new management team at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are awear of the impacts caused by the collapse of the prawn industry on the Tugela Banks as they discuss that in this YouTube video.

The question now becomes "What is the IWPA doing about the economic losses associated with the collapse of the prawn fishing industry" 

The IWPA does not tell you that there were TWO (2) and not one prawn fishing industries. The one that everybody knows about was owned and managed by I&J , the frozen foods guys. The second #PrawnFishingIndustry was a secret that was well gaurded and kept very quite, coz the Andrew Zaloumis management team at the IWPA had successfully closed down the legal prawn fisheries that were opperational within the iSimangaliso wetland park. They just simply refused to renew the existing netting licences, citing the world heritage status of the park as the reason for this closure.

The licence holders went bankrupt and did not have the resources to take legal actions against the state. There was a true collaborative effort by a number of different state departments to ensure that the entire fishing industry within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems was shut down and destroyed. The Andrew Zaloumis management team at the IWPA managed this destruction of the local fishing industry in Umkhanyakude very well. 

The fact that this management team only reported to the office of the president, and had special privilages, as the IWPA did not report to any local government or provincial government structures, allowed them to do as they please, leaving the folks on the ground excluded at every opportunity. The Andrew Zaloumis REGIME was not a pleasant time for the folks on the ground within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, as they were treated as poachers who should be dispised at all costs, and denied access to natural renewable resources.

The economic impacts of these rather nasty actions and activities by the IWPA, when they refused to renew fishing permits and netting licences was huge, and to make matters worse this went down at the same time as the 4x4 ban. The issue was truly confused within the public domain, coz the IWPA painted these folks as "POACHERS" and ensured that these issues were clouded out by the noise about the 4x4 ban.

With hindsight and a little joining the dots, one can understand what the other contributing factors to the economic losses within the Umkhanyakude district Municipality are. The missing economy is all about the missing natural renewable resources. 

The local population living on the shores of lake St Lucia have the constitutional right to harvest and sell the natural renewable resources of the St. Lucia estuary system. The issue of sustainability is always a problem point. Now if the system is not managed as a whole, and the sustainability of individual species is not connected to the sustainability of the whole, then we will have a big fail… 

This big failure by the state and it's appointed custodians of our natural renewable resources and associated environmental spaces is a reality. Unfortunately this is hidden from the public by very clever public perception management STRATEGY based within the national government at the highest levels with the guys at Tourism and Environmental Affairs taking the lead roles.

The current situation is not acceptable, coz the whole St. Lucia system ( estuary and lake ) is at risk of total collapse. Some folks say that we are already past the point of no return to natural Estuary Management, and that the human race must now take collective responsibility and manage the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems proactively.

Just do some #CriticalThinking and evaluate the serious environmental consiquences caused by the draing of all marshlands, Swamps and waterpans in north east Zulu Land, or the Maputu Land Coast, which was an extremely high malaria zone in the past, to eliminate mosquitoes, and the impacts of this on waterflow patterns within lake St Lucia.

So many different problems all neatly rolled up into one big spaghetti ball. What to do about the environmental health of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park depends on which side of the environmental fence you live and play. These are serious issues that need to be addressed at National level.

What are your views ? Leave a comment !! Or not ?

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Thanx for your eyeballs on my content.