Fishing in the St. Lucia estuary is a waste of your time

Today, 9 October 2019, I took a drive to the beach at St. Lucia with Petrus Bierpens pens of #BierpensTV and then walked to where the whale watching boats launch. It was such a beautiful morning, unfortunately my finances do not currently allow me the privilege of a camera to take some pics and upload them here.  Any way on the way from Ingwe Beach to the beach launch  location I walked along the estuary side and not the sea shore.

I was once again saddened by the mud flats full of flamingoes and a variety of fresh water ducks and other water birds in the space where we should be fishing the incoming tide. After the recent north east winds which blew the water from  lake St. Lucia into the Umfolozi and Umzinduze river deltas, and this mornings calmness, the water in the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth area was flowing happily from South to North, returning  into the lake systems north of St. Lucia.

Most folks have no idea of the vast volumes of water that the winds move around the St. Lucia lake system, or the scary figures of water evaporation which takes place  on the surface of the waterways connected to lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems. When trying to explain how the St. Lucia estuary system should be functioning as a breeding ground for many marine fish species, the current situation confuses most folks, and they battle to understand the connections between water flow and phytoplankton as the primary food source at the extreme base of the food chain.

Phytoplankton does not do very well in standing water, and also prefers a mix of fresh  or sweet water and sea or salt water. Phytoplankton is the primary diet of Zooplankton, and zoo plankton is the second tier in the food chain.  So the fact that the St. Lucia estuary is closed, and there is no sea water mixing with the fresh water from the Umfolozi and other rivers in the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park, means that the base of the food chain within lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system is dysfunctional and not really able to support  the current biological load within the many different bio zones of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Very few of the folks that I speak to here in the streets of St. Lucia actually connect the dots between the food chain in the estuary and the food chain in the terrestrial areas adjacent to Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia Estuary system, or the food chain on our offshore reefs which have just recently been included in brand new MPA's  ( Marine Protected Areas )

Now that these new areas are protected to conserve our fish stocks,  I am truly Confuckumalated, because there is NO mention of JUVENILE RECRUITMENT that I could find.  Most of the fish species that these new legislations are attempting to protect are dependant on a functioning estuary for their breeding and the protection of their fry, before they are big enough to venture out into the ocean and populate our off shore reefs. Many of the reef fish in the new MPA's also consume biological bio mass connected to a functioning estuary such as prawns, crabs and the juvenile fish of many different species of fish and other marine species that breed and mature within the safety of the reed  beds, mangrove swamps and other safe havens encountered in Lake St. Lucia, the St. Lucia estuary system and surrounding waterways.

So taking into account that there are no juvenile fish entering the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems, and that the ocean is not connected to the St. Lucia estuary system, you are truly wasting your ti me, effort and financial resources if you go fishing in the St. Lucia estuary
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Once again, thanx for reading here...

Please support the 4u2fish campaign by speaking about these problems and asking others to read and comment here.  If you are in a financially positive situation and want to donate to our  cause  then click here

Hash tags relevant to this post
#ReviveStLucia
#Frankie2Socks
#BierpensTV
#whalewatching
#4u2fish

Your views and opinion

Greetings and salutations to all who read here.

The 4u2fish campaign needs your views and opinions on the issues surrounding the current biodiversity collapse within the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park, which is currently managed by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, an ANC APPOINTED management authority, in terms of the world heritage Convention act and associated legislations.

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is the appointed the legal custodian of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park and other areas of  the Maputuland Coast that have been included into the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and as such they ( The IWPA )  are responsible for the management of the St. Lucia Estuary management plan, as is envisaged in the ICMA or Integrated Coastàl Management Act and related legislations.

The IWPA has been side stepping this duty and needs to be  confronted and forced to develop and implement a Estuary management plan in terms of the ICMA and the NEMA or National Environmental Management Act

What is your opinion on this matter ?

How do you think that we, as South African citizens, should take up this very complex and rather thorny issue of enforcing our environmental rights in terms of section 24 in chapter 2 of the South African Constitution?

Read more about this view here

Your comments and views will be truly appreciated here.

The 4u2fish campaign needs your help

The 4u2fish campaign was brought to life with the intentions of creating a collection of politically acceptable platforms to tackle the many thorny issues around consumptive tourism within Umkhanyakude.  Now consumptive tourism is just a fancy way of saying tourism connected to hunting, fishing, harvesting of natural renewable resources and related àctivities.  Renewable resources is also just fancy terminology for wild life, fish, and the natural resources used within the local arts and crafts industry.

Help the 4u2fish campaign

Fishing, hunting and collecting natural resources are for some strange reasons,  seen as bad and unsavory pass times, which should be avoided, and thus the folks doing the hunting, fishing and harvesting of other natural renewable resources get an awful lot of bad or negative publicity. The 4u2fish team will have a primary focus on fishing and fishing related issues, but the stories around hunting and collecting of natural renewable resources used in the manufacture of arts and crafts will not be neglected, as this is a very important part, and a large one at that, of the Umkhanyakude district municipality's income generating base. The so called 4x4 ban ( #4x4ban ) changed this, when more than 20 000 job losses within the domestic tourism industry nearly bankrupted the Elephant coast tourism industry.

In the past, the Fisher folks, and their associated crews formed the çore base of the Umkhanyakude district municipality's tourism base.  These are the folks who put bums in beds, purchased arts and crafts, and generally kept the Maputuland tourism businesses afloat and making profit. The Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park Authority and its successor the IWPA ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ) systematically and methodically changed the composition of this once very lucrative tourism market, and ensured that domestic tourism within Umkhanyakude collapsed and became insignificant.

Name changes and the restructuring of the management entities within Umkhanyakude has also contributed significantly to the economic collapse of our local and domestic tourism base. The Maputuland Coast became the Elephant Coast, then the same area became the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, causing confusion within the marketing industry. At the same time the iSimangaliso Wetland park Authority bullied  the local municipalities into submission, and then assumed many roles that should be managed and implemented by the local municipalities management teams.

This strategy has allowed the IWPA to do many nasty things, and the one that we as the 4u2fish management team are most worried about is the blatant mismanagement of the St. Lucia estuary and associated waterways. The knock on impact of a non functional estuary is rather disturbing, and extremely far reaching.  Whole communities have lost their source of income and can no longer sustain their lifestyles. The fish, prawns, reeds, grasses and other natural renewable resources are no longer available for domestic consumption, forcing folks to take other  survival strategies, becoming criminals in the process, due to protective legislations put in place by the IWPA.

 
Help the 4u2fish campaign  your financial contribution will allow the 4u2fish campaign to take up these issues at all levels.

The 4u2fish campaign needs your views and opinions

The 4u2fish campaign is in place to assist  the general public within Umkhanyakude and the St. Lucia tourism industry with their projects, by getting folks  within the social media space to be active, attentive and present in person when needed at public participation process meetings.  This will give the 4u2FISH team members and other interested and affected parties the political tools and necessary public support to take on the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ( IWPA )

This drastic step has become essential, due to the very serious mismanagement of the St. Lucia estuary system and the subsequent collapse of the biodiversity within the St. Lucia estuary system and surrounding waterways.  The local communities surrounding Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system used to depend on the renewable natural resources within the system for many of their daily needs, as well as a source of income to support their families. These natural renewable resources have disappeared. They are no longer available because the system has collapsed following the mechanical closure of the St. Lucia Estuary in 2002, and the subsequent poor \ bad management of the St. Lucia estuary system by the IWAP

There are no prawns or fish to be caught in the St. Lucia estuary. The fish no longer have access to their breeding grounds and nursery zones, where the fry could grow up in the protection of mangrove forests and other intertidal areas.

There is currently ( May 2019 ) no domestic tourism connected to consumptive tourism within the  St. Lucia estuary system or its hinter lands in Lake St. Lucia. This means that the passing trade associated with tourism connected to boating and fishing within the area is missing.  This passing trade is rather substantial, and was the main driver of the local arts and crafts industry within the Umkhanyakude district municipality.

The management of the 4u2fish campaign thus invite you, as a concerned  citizen to  join  us in our attempts to regain fishing and general access rights to the many diverse natural areas of lake St. Lucia, the  St. Lucia estuary system and surrounding water ways as well as the  coast line of the Elephant Coast.

Besides access rights which have been systematically eroded, there is the major issue of biodiversity collapse, which also needs our attention. The #BIODIVERSITY problems need urgent attention, but we must not neglect access rights.

Our  collective fishing rights and access rights have been systematically eroded away through the introductions of legislations developed and implemented by the IWPA. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority  is the government appointed custodian of the GREATER ST. LUCIA WETLAND PARK WORLD HERITAGE SITE,  which was renamed as the iSimangaliso wetland Park World Heritage Site.  The IWPA have been systematically ensuring that the local as well as domestic consumptive tourism market is eradicated and removed from the tourism mix within the Umkhanyakude district municipality.

This may sound harsh or even unthinkable, but  we do need to consider the world heritage site deregistration process, and evaluate using this as a tool to force the hand of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority. The area was declared a WORLD HERITAGE SITE because of the natural biodiversity within the area.  Now that the biodiversity within lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system has collapsed, does the area still warrant being a world heritage site ?

This and many other very thorny issues need to be addressed, and each of these issues will require public participation process meetings as is mandated in the legislations around these issues through the processes as laid out in the National Environmental Management Act. ( NEMA ) 

Some other important questions that the public have been asking....

Where does one find a toxicology report discussing the long term impact of the IWPA  spraying with DDT,  which was undertaken with special permission from the United Nations  as part of the South African governments anti malaria efforts, following motivation of using DDT by the CEO of the IWPA and the minister of ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS in the early 2000's

When will the IWPA hold PPPMs   ( #PPPM  ) Public Participation Process Meetings discussing their Integrated Management Plans which they are mandated to have in place, including their annual revision of these processes.

When will the Coastal Management Committee hold a public participation meeting in the St. Lucia town hall.  The public need to know what this organisation is doing about fish breeding that is not happening within the St. Lucia estuary system, following the #BIODIVERSITY within the St. Lucia biosphere.

When will the minister of environmental affairs speak to the St. Lucia tourism industry discussing the huge losses within Umkhanyakude district municipality domestic  tourism base, caused by the collapse biodiversity within the St. Lucia estuary system along with its surrounding waterways as well as what reports are being passed across to the minister of tourism and the minister of finance?

Like I said there are many diverse issues that each have some impact on our collective fishing experiences. The 4U2FISH CAMPAIGN intends to put platforms and structures in place for the public to  use in their personal efforts to ensure that their environmental rights are both protected and enforced in a manner that they appreciate, whilst protecting our environment along with the renewable resources such as fish, prawns and other harvestable organisms which are of value to the domestic consumptive tourism market.

Please continue the discussion in the comments below, share this post on your favourite social media platform and talk about the 4U2FISH CAMPAIGN to those who you believe may have an interest.

#FRANKIE2SOCKS
#ReviveStLucia
#HestelStLucia
#4U2FISH
#BIODIVERSITY
 

The purpose of the 4u2fish campaign

The 4u2fish campaign is in place to assist the residents of Umkhanyakude district municipality with their public perception management strategies associated with fishing rights and related access rights to zones where harvesting of natural renewable resources (fishing) takes place within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site.

Sunset jetty in St. Lucia KZN South Africa 

The 4u2fish campaign need these public perception management strategies in place to counter the bad reputation that fisher folks and other recreational beach users have acquired due to the attitudes, actions and activities of the many developers, especially within the environmental tourism industry, who are always on the lookout for cheap land in places where people gather for leisure activities. 

By giving fisher folks, and other harvesters of natural renewable resources a bad rap, these developers exclude the local community and put up developments that are not fisher folk friendly, which some how exclude the local population. These developments usually cater for the upper market, with a focus on international tourism and the trendy crowd, who are mostly arm chair environmentalists, with little practical exposure to real life environmental problems.

 
The primary purpose of the #4u2fish campaign is to generate public awareness of the problems and issues that impact on our collective fishing experiences, and then generate meaningful public discussions and conversations around our public awareness campaigns, events and activities with the intent on improving the domestic tourism markets. 

The intentions of the 4u2fish campaign is to improve domestic tourism associated with recreational beach use within the Umkhanyakude District municipality.

the 4u2fish campaign is primarily concerned with fishing within the iSimangaliso Wetland park, which includes but is not restricted to

• the Elephant Coast Beaches previously known as the Maputalnd Coast.
• Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems
• The Umfolozi Flats and associated flood plains
• The Sodwana tourism Hub
• The Manguzi tourism Hub which includes Kozi bay
• The Hluhluwe tourism Hub with False bay, charters creek and Fanies island
• The St. Lucia tourism Hub
• The Jozini dam tourism zone

READ more about about the purpose of the 4u2fish project here

Our fishing rights within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site is going to be a very serious political battle, but we will have the rural communities  of Umkhanyakude district municipality behind us, as all losses or erosion of fishing rights within the area have negative impacts on their livelihoods, and these are mostly due to the fact that these folks rely heavily on the domestic tourism market  for their survival.

tourists to Umkhanyakude spread their impact far and wide, starting by filling up with petrol, and then spreading out to these areas amongst many others

• accommodation and hospitality
• food and beverage
• guided tours
• nature / environmentally based
• culturally based
•  historically based
• arts and crafts shopping
• passing trade on roadside informal shopping

The economic knock on impacts of these infringements of our collective environmental rights as in #Section 24 of the South African Constitution are quite scary and a cause for immense concern within the northern reaches of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in north east KZN South Africa

For more information send an email to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za or do a #HashTag Search for #4u2fish using your favourite search engine.

Please leave your views in the comments below

#Frankie2Socks

Sea water flow issues in the St. lucia Estuary, KZN South Africa

St. Lucia estuary is in a very seriously degraded state. The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are the government-appointed body that manages the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park in terms of the World Heritage Convention act.

This region was declared a World Heritage site in December 1999, and later renamed as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, or the IWP,    the IWPA has been mandated by the government to manage the IWPWHS ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site)  and as such, this is the authority that is responsible for the ecological functioning of the IWPWHS, as well as the tourism business generated through the fact that the area is a World Heritage site.

The ICMA or integrated Coastal Management  Act mandates the state to have an estuary management plan in place for each estuary, and dictates who is responsible for the implementation of this plan.  the current situation is that this plan is not clearly attributed to any speific body to implement,  and we as local residents within the St. Lucia area have no idea who to turn to solve our problems that come along with an ecologically degraded and non-functional estuarine environment. 

In my opinion, the IWPA has failed us, and we need serious government intervention to fix the problems caused by no seawater flowing in and out of the St. Lucia estuarine system as the ocean tides change.   this is due to many factors, with the current drought conditions being the major driver of these problems.

#FRANKIE2SOCKS Has done a little digging and some research producing this report for us at the #4u2fish  blog.

Introduction to Frankie2socks crusade for better fishing rights along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa

Many thanx for reading here.  the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa  lies in the north east corner of Kzn South Africa stretching  from Cape St. Lucia light house in the south to the Mozambique border adjacent to Kozi bay in the north.

This blog is in place to assist me in getting word out there that this area is a beautiful fishing ground, which we need to protect, nurture, enjoy and look after in a manner that our grandchildrens children will appreciate as they fish and enjoy our beautiful coastline.

This is going to be a rough ride, and there will be many court cases, where we the public will be challenging  the government  and its many agents, including the IWPA  or iSimangaliso Wetlandj Park Authority,  who are appointed to manage the greater St. Lucia wetland park and the local municipalities, who should be looking after the interests of their local populations . We need to ensure that our righrs to fish are not infringed errroded or destroyed, and that the environment is conducive to good fishing, and looked after in a manner that all South Africans can enjoy and appreciate.

My Name is Frank Gainsford, but those who have met me or know me call me Frankie2socks.

we will be using the following hahtags


#4u2fish
 
#revivestlucia

#herstelstlucia

#frankie2socks


More coming doon.

Regards and once again thanx for reading here.

edited  for spelling errors.