Author Archives: Natalie Janse

Weekly Press Review – 10 October 2014

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The ongoing perlemoen crisis has made headlines again this week with a study pointing to the fact that ever-depleting perlemoen stocks are primarily due to increased levels of organised crime, drug dependency and poverty in smaller South Africa communities.

The study was conducted by TRAFFIC and 25 years of lawful and unlawful trade in perlemoen formed the basis for the research. The study found that extreme poverty and drug dependence have led to people in small fishing villages turning to perlemoen poaching as a means to gain income.

Most of the perlemoen eventually finds its way to markets in Hong Kong.

Also reported in the press this week is the annual right southern whale survey that is taking place along the coast between Muizenberg and Nature’s Valley at present.

The survey is conducted annually by the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute.  Researchers Ken Findlay and Meredith Thornton are about half way through this year’s survey.  Each whale that they spot is recorded, all cow and calf pairs are recorded and photographed and whales with distinctive brindle markings are also photographed.

The data that is collected is analysed to provide information regarding population abundance, growth rates, survival, calving intervals and age.

The “green seafood” movement has made headlines again with a report published by WWF-SA’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative revealing that the 10 retailers signed up to their programme has shown on average a 30 percent improvement in selling and sourcing sustainably harvested seafood.

The report stated that, “shifts in consumer patterns had triggered a reaction from retailers who began to look for more sustainable suppliers to meet the changing consumer demand.”

Iziko Museums were also in the news  with their focus on marine heritage.  Marine heritage will be celebrated with a week-long programme entitled:  Discovering the Deep:  past, present and future.

National Marine Week is celebrated annually and its aim is to bring awareness to the marine and coastal environment, as well as to promote the sustainable use and conservation of all marine resources.

Weekly Press Review – 3 October 2014

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The vessel the Africa Mercy has made headlines this week as she docked at the V&A Waterfront for a two week visit.  The vessel is the world’s largest civilian hospital ship and will host three open days during her stay in Cape Town before departing for Madagascar.

The vessel, which is equipped with state-of-the-art operating rooms, is staffed by volunteers and provides free medical care to patients across Africa.

The Africa Mercy and her sister vessels have visited more than 70 countries and provided more than R11 billion worth of medical services.  More than 2.5 million patients have been treated.

Weekly Press Review – 26 September 2014

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Hout Bay beach has made headlines this week.  The beach has been closed since late last week after standard water tests revealed high levels of E.coli.

According to Benedicta van Minnen of the mayor’s office, the cause of the high E.coli levels may not necessarily be only due to human waste in the Disa River which flows through Hout Bay.  She stated that, after the heavy rains at the end of the rainy season, the storm water flowing into the sea can also raise the E.coli levels.

The NSRI was in the news again this week after rescuing a sailor who fractured his hand and arm whilst on board his vessel.

The Anna M was sailing from Cameroon to Singapore when a 41-year old Turkish sailor fell 5 metres on board his vessel and required medical assistance.  The vessel headed for Cape Town to arrange for the evacuation of the sailor.

Pat van Eyssen NSROI Table Bay station commander said, “Our NSRI Table Bay volunteer sea rescue duty crew launched our sea rescue craft accompanied by two Western Cape Government Health EMS rescue paramedics and responded.”

The sailor is being treated at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.

Results of studies done by Nasa regarding the thinning of the ice in the Arctic sea grabbed also attracted some media attention.  Ice readings are at their sixth lowest since recording began in 1978.

Nasa tracks sea ice from space, as well as performing airborne field research.  Operation IceBridge operates flights over the Arctic and has been measuring sea ice and ice sheets for several years.

According to Walter Meier, researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, “It is so much thinner than it used to be, it is more susceptible to melting.”

Weekly Press Review – 19 September 2014

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The upcoming Shark Bay development in Langebaan has made headlines this week.  After a 25 year battle the residents of Langebaan have had to admit defeat as their application to halt the development of the Langebaan lagoon area has been dismissed by the Western Cape High Court.

In essence this means that the developer, Dormell Properties 391, has been granted permission to build 69 luxury houses on the eastern shores of the lagoon.  The land in question runs very close to the West Coast National Park and residents have based their argument against the development on the fact that they felt that relevant considerations about the status of the land had not been taken into account and mandatory procedures had not been followed.

The court dismissed this and the development will go ahead.

Also making headlines this week are the findings of researchers from the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute, who have discovered that African bottlenose dolphins have a very specific whistle for each specific dolphin. What this means is that they use a rich variety of different sounds to communicate, find food and navigate on a daily basis.  They may even be able to learn new sounds.

Scientist, Tess Gridley, says, “This ability to learn new sounds is quite unusual in the animal kingdom.” She adds that dolphins use signature whistles to stay in contact with other dolphins and to regroup if they become separated.

The gap between humans and other mammals gets a little smaller.

Weekly Press Review – 12 September 2014

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Reported in the press this week was the discovery of two missing vessels that could unlock one of  history’s biggest maritime mysteries.  One of the two British explorer ships that vanished in the Arctic whilst searching for the fabled Northwest Passage has been found almost 170 years later.

The HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror disappeared in the 1840s and one of the wrecks has been discovered by a Canadian search team that has been searching for the vessels since 2008.  At this point it is not clear which vessel has been found.  It is believed that the vessels were lost after they became locked in ice near King William Island.

There is now a dispute over who actually owns the passage where the vessel has been discovered.  Canada believes that the body of water belongs to them, but others say that it is international territory.

Whoever takes ultimate credit for the discovery of and ownership of this wreck, it is still an amazing discovery so many years after such a terrible loss.

Weekly Press Review – 5 September 2014

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Two South African animal rights activists made headlines this week when they were arrested in the Faroe Islands after attempting to stop islanders from killing pilot whales during a traditional hunt.

The hunt is an annual event on the Faroe Islands, an autonomous state. Islanders defend the killing as a cultural right, but animal rights campaigners condemn it as a “brutal slaughter.”

The South African activists, part of the group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, were arrested by the Danish navy, who provide assistance to the Faroe Islands to secure their fishing rights.  They have both been released, but are apparently severely traumatised by witnessing the slaughter of these sea creatures.

Cape Town has played host to a fishing conference this week. It was reported in the press that more than 100 delegates from approximately 30 countries attended the World Forum of Fisher Peoples, where the interests of small fishers was the main topic of discussion.

Speaking at the conference was Seth Macinko, an academic from the University of Rhode Island in the US.  He warns that there is a global push to privatise the oceans’ stocks.  In theory, this would mean that investors would have exclusive property rights over these public resources which would be used like any other commodity to be traded.

Macinko said, there is “A heavy emphasis on the idea of privatising fishing rights to make it an investment option, a commodity to attract Wall Street-style investors.”

This idea would obviously create a huge problem for small scale fishers who would no doubt be completely cut out of the loop.

Whether a proposal like this would ever find its feet in South African waters is doubtful.  Fishing rights allocation is an extremely troubled process at present and the outcry over small scale fishermen being cut out would surely be to huge a hurdle to overcome.

The SA Agulhas II has once again set sail for Gough Island on her annual visit.  It was mentioned in the press this week that the research team on board the vessel will spend 14 months on the island and will be joined by members from the Department of Public Works, Starlite Aviation and officials from the Department of Environmental Affairs.

Weekly Press Review – 29 August 2014

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PetroSA has made the headlines this week with the decision to cancel plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Mossel Bay.  The decision was based on a feasibility study which revealed several technical complications at the site as well as financial considerations.

The company has said that it is still planning to keep looking for a suitable location along the coast.

A story revealing how fishermen take care of fishermen also made news this week.  Local fishermen came to the aid of two fishermen whose rubber duck capsized off the coast of Lamberts Bay. The fishermen were escorted to the local harbour where the NSRI were on hand.  The two stricken fishermen, aged 55 and 45 were treated for mild hypothermia.

The NSRI thanked the fishing community in the area for their assistance.

In environmental news, it was reported that Japan is planning to propose a 50 percent cut on catches of young tuna.  The decision is aimed at safeguarding the at-risk species.

With the terrible weather slamming the South African coast this week, it is not surprising that rough seas led to a chokka fishing boat running aground off St Francis Bay.  It has been reported that the vessel, the Sikelela, lost power while turning towards the harbour entrance and, due to high swells and strong winds, ran aground on rocks and harbour wall dolosse.

The St Francis Bay NSRI managed to rescue all 13 crew members.

A survey into plastic pollution in our oceans grabbed media attention too.  Author, Charles J Moore, a captain in the US Merchant Fleet and founder of a leading ocean research group has stated that he is “utterly shocked” by the amount of plastic floating in the sea.

The sight causing all the alarm is what is being described as a floating landfill site in the North Pacific Ocean and Moore believes that the ever increasing amount of pollution in our oceans is far deadlier than climate change.

“It’s choking our future in ways that most of us are barely aware of.”

Unfortunately there are no high tech methods to reduce ocean pollution, but plastic pollution seems to be the biggest contributor.  With plastic, there is action that can be taken.  The survey offers some solutions:

  • Plastic bag tax
  • Screens to cover gutters and catchment basins
  • Even more emphasis on recycling
  • Sieve-like skimmers to remove debris from the water.

These all sound like practical solutions, but like most problems affecting our planet, I think the first change needs to take place in the hearts and minds of those living on this planet.  That would be us.  Think, reuse and recycle.

Weekly Press Review – 22 August 2014

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It would seem that the police can only do so much in the fight against abalone poaching, matters are now in the hands of the country’s legal system. It was reported in the press this week that the case against 25 members of a major abalone syndicate has been postponed for another two weeks.

Two of the accused, husband and wife Frank and Josephine Barends, have lodged an application for a stay of prosecution.  The two week delay is to allow the couple a chance to make final admissions or enter plea agreements.  The trial has not yet begun.

The Costa Concordia was back in the news this week with South African company Xtreme Projects and Kevin Kelly grabbing the headlines.  There is a huge amount of local pride around the raising of the stricken vessel and the role that South Africans played in the salvage operation.  Kelly and Xtreme Projects were responsible for the large orange booms that surrounded the vessel during the operation.  The booms were designed to prevent any oil or other waste products that may have leaked from the vessel during the salvage operation from reaching the coast or moving out to sea.

Kelly was quoted as saying that he had no idea it would become such a big story.  “I am still a little shocked.”

Adding to the wave of positivity around the salvaging of the Costa Concordia, Nick Sloane, widely regarded as the master mind behind the greatest salvage operation in history, also made headlines this week.

Sloane has been described as a hero and a rock star by the international press and in an interview with a local newspaper he described some of the challenges faced when undertaking the massive salvage operation.  In the end he said that it was the words of Nelson Mandela that inspired him, ”Everything looks impossible, and then you do it!”

Another wandering seal has been sighted at Misty Cliffs beach near Scarborough.  It was reported in the press that, according to Luke Kruyt of TEARS Animal Rescue, the seal seemed to be in good health and would no doubt move on within a few days.  The leopard seal is thousands of kilometres away from its home in Antarctica.

Members of the public have be warned to stay away from the seal if they come across it, as leopard seals can be aggressive.

Weekly Press Review – 15 August 2014

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The hard work of local police in the fight against abalone poaching has made headlines this week with several abalone seizures being reported in the press.  A 37-year-old man appeared in the Strand Magistrate’s court earlier this week after R780 000 worth of abalone was found in his car.

In the eastern Cape police shut down an illegal abalone-drying facility and seized approximately six tons of gourmet mollusc with an estimated value of R10 million. Three men were arrested.

It would appear that inroads are being made by the police to combat the illegal poaching of abalone, but unfortunately confiscation does not assist in the protection of this now highly endangered species. There needs to be greater emphasis on prevention and that is no easy task.

The Panama Canal has made headlines this week, celebrating its 100th birthday.  The famous canal is widely regarded as one of the greatest engineering wonders of the 20th century, but is now under pressure to update and revamp to keep up with competing 21st century canal projects.

The Panama Canal was officially opened on 15 August 1914 and over 1 million vessels have made use of it over the last 100 years.  There are plans to revamp the now dated canal to cater for larger vessels, but the completion date has been extended until January 2016.

Weekly Press Review – 8 August 2014

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It was reported in the press this week that, although trout are as yet not mentioned on the new list of alien invasive species, they are not quite out of the woods yet.  The Department of Environmental Affairs is in discussion with members of the local trout industry to determine the listing status of this alien species.

The Federation of Southern African Flyfishers and Trout in SA has welcomed the decision to postpone the listing of trout regulation, saying that they are “committed to finding a workable and simple set of solutions aimed at achieving self-regulation and audited compliance.”

It is, however, still definitely the department’s intention to add trout to the list of invasive aliens, it just remains to be seen how trout will be listed.