The unnatural disaster of a deluge of plastic and alien hyacinth disgorged by the Nahoon River onto the beach has added urgency to the campaign to defend marine protected areas and nature reserves.
While the teacher on the beach, Jonginenge Eco Adventures director Dean Knox, says the mess has not been as bad as in the past, he was quick to urge all environment-lovers to link up with the global August 1 Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Day movement.
The event was launched by SA organisations in 2021 as a follow-up to the historic declaration on August 1 2019 of 20 new or expanded protected areas in the country.
No events were held in KuGompo City.
MPAs are often called the national parks of the sea.
The movement has grown and has been endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which is happening from 2021 to 2030.
The UN shows that 26 events were held in SA alone this year, and last year there were 103 events across 39 countries, according to the EU’s Europa Mission Ocean and Waters.
Knox said it was positive move that the Amathole MPA, comprising three areas, arose from the original initial ski boat-free zones established in the late ‘80s, to the MPA proclamation in 2011.
This was followed by the extension of offshore MPAs to included Port Alfred and Kei Mouth in 2019.
“When you are looking at threats to this part of the ocean and coastline — future harbour development plans, gill netting across estuaries, illegal trawlers, future oil and gas plans, increased shipping which causes whales and other animals to suffer ship strike — MPAs must protect against present and future threats,” he said.
Knox said the Amathole central MPA from Nahoon to Gonubie had four inflowing estuaries — Ihlanza, Nahoon, Quenera and Gonubie — and all these MPAs were threatened by sewage, plastic and alien plants coming from the estuaries.
These MPAs were rich in biodiversity and history, and bordered nature reserves and coastal protected areas, such as the Nahoon Point Nature Reserve.
Though Knox believed there was a lot less plastic and hyacinth than the last time, Save Nahoon’s Kevin Harris has been inspecting two dams, one a quarry below Nompumelelo, and has been devastated at the outflow of plastic and sewage on its way to the Nahoon River.
Posters shared by MPA Day organisations state that there are 150 marine eco-regions in SA waters.
There are 261 endemic fish species, in the three oceans bordering SA — the Atlantic, Southern and Indian oceans. It noted how MPAs protected rare and endangered species, such as coelacanths and life in the submarine canyons of iSimangaliso MPA.
MPAs protected coral and rocky reefs, kelp forests and sandy shore habitats.
Seventy-four, a fish heavily overfished by the 1960s was protected and numbers were increasing in MPAs which also helped protect 16% of the world’s shark, skate and ray species.
Pressures and threats were quantified in the posters: 37% of SA seabirds were threatened, 30% of SA’s endemic seabreams were under threat, there were 55 species of invasive and alien plants and animals in SA oceans, four out of five turtle species were threatened, and 300 exploratory offshore oil and gas wells have been drilled.
Climate change and plastic pollution were threatening many marine species.
Increasing coastal housing and other developments were threatening entire coastal ecosystems and putting pressure on natural processes and the swing to a healthy fish diet was putting pressure on fish numbers. — Daily Dispatch
