Wetlands Wire Page 11

A bite from a shark provides identification of this whale, photographed off the Park in August last year.

Dirk Rezelman

About 13 years ago Danie and Riette Bennett were living in Kempton Park when they decided they’d had enough of city life.
So they came to St Lucia and took over a restaurant, the Captain’s Cabin, now called La Gosta. Danie, a keen fisherman also started a deep sea fishing charter which soon became a full-time business.
Riette also took to the water, becoming the first woman in South Africa to qualify as a skipper. She now runs the Advantage, a tourist launch on the lake under concession from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife on behalf of the Wetlands Authority.
In 1995 Danie had a close encounter with one of the Park’s largest visitors: “We were out fishing when we saw a whale entangled in thick ropes and long-line fishing gear. It was gasping on the surface, struggling to free itself.
“The crew and I felt we had to do something so we jumped onto its back and struggled to cut it free. It could have sounded at any time; it did once, leaving a crew member floundering.
“Once or twice we injured the animal: the ropes were so deeply embedded we had to cut them free from the blubber. We didn’t know whether it would survive, and in the back of our minds we knew we were dealing with an unpredictable wild creature.
“Eventually the whale seemed to be free, but just lay there, exhausted. We despaired at the man’s indifference when abandoning kilometers of rope and long lines.
“Then the whale seemed to become infused with energy and rolling over, it sounded silently.
“A few minutes later, it suddenly launched itself into the air, looked at us and fell back with a huge splash.”
Danie gave up his fishing charter and is now devoted to whale monitoring, funding this by ferrying whale watchers out to sea where he says 700% more whales occur than off Hermanus in the Cape.
His sole concession to run whale watching from the Tugela mouth to Kosi Bay has recently been renewed, and his clientele are 85% overseas tourists.

A whale breaches off Mapelane.

Coelacanth Conference

An international Coelacanth Conference will be held in East London from October 28-31. This is being organised through the Coelacanth Research Programme initiated when recreational divers discovered the fossil fish – the coelacanth – in the submarine canyons in the Wetland Park and links research and training efforts of all countries in whose waters this fish is found.
Once considered extinct, its discovery in 1938 on a fishing vessel East London in 1938 was one of the most exciting finds of the 20th century. The Coelacanth Programme is one of the ‘key’ research projects in the Park, collaborating with the Authority on research, ecotourism and environmental education.

PROFILE OF CONCESSIONAIRE

A WHALE OF A TALE

Vol 1 No. 2 November 2003

READERS FORUM

First Prize letter

Congratulations on the first Wetlands Wire, but I would like to comment on the article by Salim Fakir `A new environmental moralism`’.
How independent he really is, is questionable as he represents the IUCN and obviously has close ties with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs.
Nevertheless he has a point. The GSLWP is large enough to accommodate different forms of developments for the betterment of the area and its people.
His criticism of the purist environmentalist is however disappointing.
His words `a rather narrow and mundane form of environmental moralism’ and `unfortunate that an unintended consequence of our legal framework is that it has given power to the kind of environmentalist who sees in all forms of developments the gloomiest of scenarios’, may well return to haunt him.
The Acer Report on beach driving in the Park shows South Africans might get 5% or 11,2 km of access, while tour operators targeting foreign tourists get 30% - quite unbalanced!
Wetlands Wire seems to be proud of the anti-mining petition. But bear in mind it originated in KZN and Zululand and that tens of thousands of signatures were ours.
Willem Pretorius
fishcrazy@webmail.co.za

The Editor responds: Passionate environmentalists create healthy and vital debate but the future of the protected areas around the world depends on their ability to deliver tangible benefits to neighbouring communities. We hope the Park can map a win-win situation for both.

ANGLER SUPPORTS KOB BAN

Thank you for the prompt and effective action to stop the high catches of kob in St Lucia. From the point of view of the responsible anglers it would be better to have the bag limit drastically reduced to one fish per day, rather than a total ban, so they can continue to enjoy a day's outing. However, even if the limit is one per day, if the water level remains low, more fish will aggregate in the Narrows and high
fishing mortality could continue.

Larry Hutchings

Ngibone photo exhibition in Park

Photograph by Bheki Mlondo, one of those who took part in the training

In May photographers who have taken part in the Park’s cultural programme held an exhibition at Durban’s NSA Gallery which will soon be on show in the area.
The cultural programme explores the themes of nature and culture through drama, story-telling, music, dance, craft and photography.

The photographers worked with professional ones from the Durban Centre for Photography. Their work on show marked the end of the second phase of the programme, with more training and mentoring to come. It aims to improve their ability to earn an income from photography. Long-term vision is for them to contribute towards a photographic record of the area.
Photographers whose work was on show included Mduduzi Mcambi (St Lucia), Bheki Mlondo (Khula village), Sabelo Ndlazi (Mnqobokazi), Thokozani Menyuka (Mnqobokazi), John Thabethe (Manguzi), Velaphi Masinga (Manguzi), Jabulani Mabunga (Manguzi), Vincent Mthembu (Manguzi), Lucky Nsele (Manguzi) and Peter Sibiya (Manguzi). The programme is funded by the Department of Arts and Culture.