Addo Marine Protected area support letter

Dear all,

As you may be aware, the new Addo Marine Protected Area (MPA) has been proposed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs on the 3rd of February of this year, together with another 21 MPAs in South Africa.

Marine Protected Areas are crucial for healthy marine ecosystems. They are beneficial for the recovery of exploited fish stocks, ensuring the sustainable exploitation of our marine resources, hence jobs and food security. They also offer safe havens for many species and top predators' populations.

Algoa Bay is home to more than half of the world African penguin population. Their population crashed by 70% in the last 10 years, and they need this MPA. Algoa Bay also hosts beautiful reefs, the largest pods of bottlenose dolphins in the world and hundreds of whales coming to give birth here every year.

You can show your support for this MPA by completing the template letter below (for a word version, please email to isabelle.defert@efdc.co.za)  and sending it toMPARegs@environment.gov.za before the end of April.

A public participation meeting, open to all, is planned on the 17th of March at 10 am in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Reception Room at the City Hall (Port Elizabeth) to discuss the draft regulations for the MPA.

Please feel free to ask any questions and please circulate this letter widely.

Regards,

Lorien

Dr Lorien Pichegru

Coastal and Marine Research Institute, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth.

tel: +27 (0) 78 844 3863

fax: +27 (0) 21 650 3295

e-mail: lorien.pichegru@nmmu.ac.za/lorienp@hotmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/algoabayhopespot

(Name and address of                                                                                                              commenter)

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The Deputy Director-General

Environmental Affairs

Oceans and Coasts

Attention: Xola Mekefe

PO Box 52126

V and A Waterfront, Cape Town

8002

Please Email to: MPARegs@environment.gov.za or

Post to above address.

Dear Deputy Director-General

Comment on: National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act no 57 of 2003): Draft Regulations for the Management of the Addo Elephant Marine Protected Area.

I would like to indicate my support for this MPA because (delete those you do not agree with or add in more)

·         The African Penguin is endangered and the Addo MPA will help protect the feeding and breeding grounds of the largest of their populations.

·         Ensuring the health and protection of Algoa Bay is important for sustaining our fisheries and biodiversity

·         A protected Algoa Bay will increase its standing and tourism opportunities

·         I want my children to be able to enjoy a healthy Bay and associated biodiversity

·         Algoa Bay belongs to everyone in Port Elizabeth and we want to look after it.

Yours sincerely

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Signature of commenter

 

PLASTIC VAGABOND

Notre Film "Le Plastique Vagabond / Plastic Vagabond" sur la pollution micro-plastique (réalisation Noe Sardet et Sharif Mishak, narration Jacques Gamblin) inspiré par l'Expédition Tara Méditerranée  dirigée par l'Observatoire de Villefranche ( G Gorsky) est en ligne sur la nouvelle version du site "Chroniques du plancton/ Plankton Chronicles"

http://planktonchronicles.org/en/plastique-vagabond-arrive/

La sortie du film est couplée avec un Appel à l'action pour collecter le plastic sur les plages et un concours ART PLASTIQUE (prix 500 $) https://www.facebook.com/plasticvagabond

Merci de faire connaitre"Le Plastique Vagabond / Plastic Vagabond"  et l'action qui ont pour but de sensibiliser un large public à la pollution plastique

Cordialement

-- 

Christian Sardet

Site "Chroniques du plancton/ Plankton Chronicles" : http://www.planktonchronicles.org

Livre "Plancton - aux origines du vivant"

http://www.editions-ulmer.fr/editions-ulmer/plancton-aux-origines-du-vivant-prix-du-meilleur-guide-du-monde-sous-marin-2014-362-cl.htm

Book "Plankton - Wonders of the Drifting World"

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo19415930.html

When Cape Town reaches Algoa Bay- French school kids in our Hope Spot

by Dr Lorien Pichegru, Algoa Bay Hope Spot chairperson and NMMU researcher.

This year a class of Grade 7 kids from the French School of Cape Town (l’Ecole Francaise du Cap) discovered the oceans, the diversity of marine life, the threats they face and the conservation efforts that we can all do in a project they called “Algoa Bay”, under the auspice of the Hope Spot initiative. In this brilliant multi-disciplinary project, beautifully orchestrated by their biology teacher, Mme Isabelle Defert, the children learned about a broad varieties of exciting fields such as biology, physics, oceanography, systematics, mathematics, photography, art, English, fund raising, the maintenance of a blog, and most importantly, they had the chance to visit our beautiful Algoa Bay Hope Spot.

The kids worked hard all along the year to raise their own funds to come and visit Algoa Bay all the way from Cape Town. Their dedication was rewarded and several companies kindly agreed to support their education towards marine conservation: TFE, LUNAR pharmaceuticals, PLEASE, AGS frasers, MOL and PHARMAKINA. The Sustainable Seas Trust jumped in by lending 20 little cameras donated by Nikon for a photo competition the kids were going to have later in the year.

 They prepared their trip in anticipation and started learning about why oceans are important for the planet, why the sea is salty, how phytoplankton looks like and how it is the base of all marine food webs.

In November, a much excited class finally came to visit the Algoa Bay Hope Spot. I took the children on a tour with Raggy Charters, to see the large marine lives. We saw a Humpback whale mother and her new born calf that treated us with a show, jumping again, again and again. The kids saw the thousands of African penguins moulting on St Croix Island, their world largest colony, and I told them about their dramatic fate. They learn how African penguins’ eggs and guano used to be collected and how now, even if the birds themselves are protected, they are starving to death because they can’t find enough sardines and anchovies to survive. They also learn, though, how a Marine Protected Area for penguins can help their population to recover and how Algoa Bay is a shining example for the protection of their marine predators! On our way back, we were also treated with some of our 20 000 bottlenose dolphins cruising in the bay…

Later on, the children went to SAMREC and learned everything about seabirds and penguins’ rehabilitation. They witnessed how the birds were fed by the efficient volunteers there, and enjoyed it a lot. I told them about the Hope Spot initiative and what they can all do to help marine conservation, like limiting the use of plastics, recycling, only eating fish from SASSI green list and spreading the word!

The following day, we met with Jenny Rump of the Zwartkops Conservancy and the kids (and the teachers!) got fascinated by the diversity of animals in an estuary and shocked by the amount of pollution coming from the storm water drain, from Motherwell straight to the oceans, plastic, sewage and all…. They also learn, from a simple experiment, how ocean acidification is slowly destroying our coral reefs and how the CO2 humans produced increases this acidification.

After this eye-opening day about the threats on the oceans, they got to witness the beauty and the diversity of marine life. With a few copies of Georges Branch’s “Two Oceans – A Guide to the Marine Life of Southern Africa” under the armpit, we went to Cape Recife at low tide and gently turned some rocks. We saw brittle stars, peanut worms, urchins of all colours, starfishes, limpets, and so much more, including a cheeky octopus hidden under a rock that tried to catch the kids’ fingers. After that, they went for a snorkel on the beautiful beach of Sardinia Bay. There, I told them about the diverse impacts of industrial fishing and make them all promise to take a commitment to Do One Thing from now on for marine conservation…

All along their trip, the kids were so interested, enthusiast and excited, it was such a pleasure to see. They regularly wrote about their experience and what they learned in a great blog (http://efdcsciences.blogspot.fr/2015_11_01_archive.html).

Finally, this beautiful experience culminated in an End-of-the-Year party in December, to which the entire French community was invited (http://www.consulfrance-lecap.org/Soiree-speciale-ALGOA-BAY-a-l-ecole-francaise-le-lundi-14-decembre). The director of the French School gave a proud speech about this exciting project and the consul of France told the assistance about the agreement reached at COP 21 the previous week. I presented the Hope Spot to the French community of Cape Town and the kids showed a beautiful movie they created with their art teacher on what they learned that year, using shadow puppets; the role of the oceans, the woes of the penguins and what we can all do to help… They ended up by presenting their commitments to marine conservation to the community. The world is now that tiny little bit better thanks to them. What a beautiful experience it has been for all of us!

Artcile écrit pour le site web de la Sustainable Seas Trust www.sst.org.za

Catastrophe naturelle au Brésil

Il y a quelques jours, un « Courant Toxique » a frappé l'océan Atlantique, au Brésil. L'eau toxique venait d'un barrage qui retenait des déchets miniers et a été détruit. L'eau a parcouru 500km pour arriver dans l’océan Atlantique, passant par l'estuaire Doce. Cet estuaire  contient des espèces en danger, comme la tortue Luth, des poissons marins et la barrière de corail. Le barrage a cédé laissant s’écouler des boues provenant d’une mine de fer. Ce mélange toxique est fait de  mercure, arsenic, chrome et manganèse à des niveaux dépassant les niveaux de consommation humaine. Sur son passage, cette coulée de boue a tué 13 personnes, des milliers d’animaux et dévasté des zones de forêts tropicales. Les pêcheurs ont essayé d'attraper quelques poissons pour sauver la biodiversité dans cette rivière. Les scientifiques ont dit que quand l'eau arrivera dans la mer, tout le côté sud de l'océan Atlantique sera touché et cela prendra au moins 100 ans pour récupérer cette biodiversité. Cela peut affecter d’autres endroits car les courants marins circulent.

Une tortue Luth est restée ici pour pondre ses œufs mais elle ne pourra plus maintenant.

Des obstacles à l'huile vont protéger la végétation.

Alick

La pêche industrielle et ses conséquences

La pêche industrielle cause des dégâts majeurs dans la chaîne alimentaire. La pêche au thon (pêche à la palangre pélagique), par exemple, n’attrape pas seulement le thon mais aussi toutes sortes d’autres animaux terrestres, marins et aériens, captant notamment albatros, requins, ou encore tortues marines….

A cause de toutes ces pêches, la chaîne alimentaire s’en voit déséquilibrée. Nous pêchons les gros poissons, qui sont pour la plupart les prédateurs et il y en a donc de moins en moins. Les poissons plus petits, de taille intermédiaire, n’ayant plus de prédateurs, se reproduisent plus facilement et leur population augmente. Comme les poissons moyens sont de plus en plus nombreux,  les poissons plus petits sont chassés en masse et vont diminuer en population et le phytoplancton, le plus petit va augmenter, produisant des marées rouges et l’eutrophisation des êtres vivants à proximité : L’eutrophisation veut dire que le dioxygène ne se renouvelle plus dans l’eau, étouffant une partie de la vie sous-marine.

Certaines personnes qui n’ont pas de chaluts et de filets, pêchent à la dynamite, qui détruit les fonds marins, ainsi que ce qu’il y a autour. Les filets à traîne causent aussi d’immenses dégâts puisque ils raclent le fond de l’eau et enlèvent les coraux. Certains ramassent même les animaux marins non voulus, qui sont ensuite rejetées à la mer morts.

Alors, lorsque vous achetez du poisson, regardez bien si votre poisson est en voie de disparition ou pas ! Les poissons sont classés en catégorie verte, orange ou rouge ! Le vert signifie que vos poissons peuvent être mangés sans problème. Rouge, on ne mange pas, même si c’est bon…(liste SASSI).

Et même vous lorsque vous êtes au bord de la mer, avez- vous déjà péché à la ligne et cassé votre ligne ou perdu un filet ? Eh bien votre équipement perdu va rester coincé dans des rochers et tuer des animaux marins pendant des centaines d’années.

Agissons tous ensembles pour protéger nos océans !

Milan et Teano

Sources: Dr Lorien Pichegru - Images extraites de "Impact of industrial fisheries on top predator" Teaching document by Dr Lorien Pichegru