My current mental state and sourcing funding.

Greetings to all who read here.

It is Tuesday 12 July 2022 and nobody is doing any thing about the massive silt blockages in the Umfolozi flats as well as lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems. This is currently an #EnvironmentalDisaster  of note.

The fish breeding grounds within the St. Lucia estuary system in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site are now not available to many different marine fish species, and the natural biomass generated within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems is no longer available as a food source for the coastal marine ecosystems along our coastline.

This is a big problem, and I am having a mental break down coz my attempts to have this problem addressed have failed. 

 The 4u2fish campaign needs your help in many different ways. Especially your moral support and your tongue touching other people's ears, so that more folks can talk about the very serious and rather nasty knock on impacts of the 2017 GEF PROJECT that connected the Umfolozi River to the northern sections of the lake, bypassing the natural filter systems of the Umfolozi flats and other connected flood zones that create the Umzunduze overflow tributary which joins the Umfolozi again near Mapelane.

There seems to be many different informal  groups and formal organisations doing things, but they are not talking much, and the public does not see any actions being taken. The folks at the northern sections of the lake are currently flooded out and the lake is truly excessively full, with a major silt deposits at the northern sections of the narrows being the problem, and locking the fresh water from the Umfolozi river into the lake system.

Lots of arguments here, but who discusses the silt problem

The natural renewable resources  like fish, crabs, prawns and others are no longer present in the St. Lucia lake systems due to the massive volumes of silt deposited by the Umfolozi River at a single location where the narrows meets the lake waters.

  During the time that the estuary waters were high, the reeds grew well and ensured better silt retention at the northern sections of the lake. This natural phenomenon ensured that a rather substantial wall of silt clogged up the water flow paths between the ocean and our marine fish breeding grounds commonly called lake St. Lucia.

The 4u2fish campaign needs your support to fix the problems associated with poor esturine management by the state and it's duly appointed representative entities. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority or IWPA is the custodian as per the world heritage convention act and associated legislation.

 I will be meeting wit hthe IWPA to discuss a way forward, and what needs to be done,  during the next few days.Once that meeting has taken place I will write more here.

Many thanx for reading our posts her on the interwebs. Please share further

#Frankie2Socks for the 4u2fsh campaign the 4u2fsh campaign.

The St. Lucia Estuary is closing fast.

 Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary systems are in real serious trouble. The 2017  GGEF Project has had many rather nasty knock on impacts. The major issues is that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority appointed scientific team which was in place to manage the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems failed to consider the rather large silt volumes that come along for the ride when the Umfolozi river floods.

 fresh water where there should be mixed marine  water

 

These scientific teams were well aware that the Umfolozi River carries rather large silt loads, as this was well discussed in past estuary management plans.  these highly educated folks, all with degrees and other high level education certification, chose to ignore the silt load within the Umfolozi river when it comes down in flood.

these scientific experts need to please explain... but we live in South Africa so ... ? what can be done ? 

The 2016 / 2017 GEF project connected the Umfolozi River to the St. Lucia lake systems, by passing the Umfolozi flats and Mzunduzi flood zone silt traps. This was achieved by lowering the Umfolozi river inflow, ensuring that the flood waters did not slow down and drop out the major silt load in the southern and eastern flood plains of the Umfolozi  River.

The end result is that the SILT WENT INTO LAKE ST.  LUCIA and dropped out at a most inconvenient  location. This silt dropped out at the same physical location with each flood event after the 2017 GEF project implementation this silt dropped out at the spot where the lake system joins the estuary tidal flow channel.. This problematic silt now acts as a rather nasty blockage within the estuary water-flow patterns, and denies access to tidal influences, ensuring that many marine fish species no longer have access to their breeding and nursery grounds.  The long term impact f this is a rather serious decline in fish numbers all along the South African coastline.

The nasty silt blockage at the base end of the St. Lucia Narrows, where the lake ends and the tidal flow channel starts, reached incredible heights  and is now about 2.5 meters (or more) above the spring tide high water level. I tried searching the iSimangaliso wetland Park Authority website at www.isimangaliso.com but this website is purely about tourism stuff and thus very UN-helpful. 

there is apparently no entity tasked with measuring the silt levels and related water flow patterns. 

we need some help to put true and nasty pressure on the minister to cometo the party and repair the damages created by the horrid and nasty mismanagement which has taken place under her watch. this should not be a SUPPRISE, cos there has been plenty of discussion about the JANUARY 2021 breaching of the St. Lucia estuary mouth by the St. Lucia community.  Unfortuntely the minister is not doing anything about the #FISHBREEDING and nursery grounds within the ST. Lucia lake and estuary systems.

2hat to do ?  comment and tell us your views.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish campaign.

read more at 4u2fish.blogspot.com 

 

Fishing at Mission Rocks in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Fishing  at Mission Rocks and adjacent rocky  shores in the iSimangaliso  Wetland  Park  is usually quite awsome, but the wind  has been blowing  in a north east direction for about three weeks now, chasing many folks off the rocks and making fishing a bit uncomfortable.

These first three weeks in November 2017 have produced  some fish along the rocky shores between  Cape Vidal  and St. Lucia, but there  should have been plenty more. My fishing   trip with Gareth  Robertson  the weekend  (18 / 19 November 2017) was quite enjoyable, even though we were blown  into submission on Saturday 18 November, coz we had an opportunity  to do a little driving around the iSimangaliso  Wetland  Park  and we're treated to some really cool sightings of game, as well as plenty of flowers in bloom.

We got to take a walk on the dried out sand  bed of Lake Bhangazi,  and  bumped  into some guys that were  fishing for barbel in the murky waters, and had a beer with them while chatting about barbel  fishing in general.

The drive on the  Bhangazi  loop road was very relaxed and a number of cars passed us as we took our time looking at flowers in bloom and just simply  enjoying the many game sightings, with plenty of ZEBRA,   KUDU,  GNU (blue wildebeest) RHINO, and other creatures.

This loop road was very fruitful  from a game viewing  perspective and I recommend  that every visitor to the iSimangaliso  Wetland  Park  take the time and effort to experience  as many of the loop roads as their time allows.  In other words, make sure that you go into the park early, and leave just in time to get our before they close the gate.  Remember that there is a R 500.00 fine for late exit......

There are many new loop toads and a few different  hides, so perhaps a day or three maybe  better  to see all.  There is plenty to see with lots of game, and even Hyhina  and leopards if you are lucky.  As for birds, there are plenty, and some are  rather  special sightings, like saddle  billed  storks.  There are plenty of yellow billed kites, but these seem to be restricted  to the coastal  zones only, where we also saw a fish eagle and plenty of swallows.


My battery on my phone died, so I  did not get pics of everything that a I would have liked. So remember  to take a good camera,  with extra  batteries, or a charger that will work  from your  transports  electric supply.

We tried fishing again on Sunday, but once again the wind was up, the surf was a bit on the large  side, and we did not catch  as many  fish as we would have liked.  We did see quite a few fish,  that were  caught by others, where kingfish, grunters, rock  cod,  sand sharks, salmon and others  were on display to claim bragging rights.

Once again, I bobbed out, but Gareth  caught a blue spotted sand shark. I did have a few good runs, and got bitten off three times, so the fish were eating, but our luck was the wrong colour.

On the way  out of the park we were treated to my first Hyhina sighting in the park,  and this guy was rather accommodating, as  I got a few good pics of this beautiful  animal.  We got to the gate at 18 H 58 which was cutting it a bit fine, as we fished in the bay at Cape Vidal till the last  minute, leaving Vidal at 18 H 10 and stopping for a few pics  nearly  became expensive, due to the R 500.00 late  exit  fine.

Will Andrew Zaloumis be criminaly charged for neglecting Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia Estuary system ?

The latest news here today, Tuesday 05 September 2017 is that Uncle Andrew, or Andrew Zaloumis has resigned from his position as CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site.  This is good news for some folks and bad new for some others. Those who have been the recipients of his good favours may be not too happy, but many South Africans, specifically those who  want to go fishing and enjoy our beautiful golden beaches along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa, are thrilled beyond belief that this tyrant has stepped aside.

Andrew Zaloumis as CEO of the IWPA has caused many hardships and cost the Elephant Coast dearly. In 2004 KZN Tourism issued an OCCASIONAL PAPER (#OccasionalPaper20 ) discussing the loss of 20 000 jobs caused by the knock on impacts of the 4x4 ban ( 4x4 ban blog ) #4x4ban  this document makes it very clear that these losses are huge and need government interventions.   Uncle Andrew on the other hand convinced the powers that be that the increase in INTERNATIONAL TOURISM would off set these losses and so they were ignored.

Problem is that the INTERNATIONAL TOURISM did not materialize, and the numbers are still (September 2017) well below the safety thresh hold with most tourism businesses within St. Lucia battling to make ends meet.  There are how ever a select few who have been hand picked by #UNCLEANDREW to make big returns on investment within the exclusive up-market international tourism sector. The losses within the domestic  tourism market were predicted, and intentionally side- lined with Good PUBLIC PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT  and bad intent perhaps even criminal intent on the part of the board of trustees at the IWPA  under the direct supervision and instructions from #UNCLEANDREW as CEO of the iSimangalsio Wetland Park Authority.

This document outlines just how well documented the predicted losses within the Elephant Coast Tourism sector was .  These predicted losses were deliberately ignored, as per linked document, and today the village of St. Lucia is nearly bankrupt,     and the tourism flow figures are way below those
of 1997-1999.  Once #UNCLEANDREW too over as CEO of the #IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) things went south, coz this fella was hell-bent on changing the face of tourism to suit the needs of the eleite, and exclude us as commoners or ordinary south African citizens.

Prices skyrocketed, and the tourism market changed its colours under Andrew Zaloumis as CEO of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.  Lake St. Lucia itself was just a pawn in #UncleAndrew 's plot to break / destroy the domestic tourism market along the Elepehant Coast of KZN South Africa as this would put him in a good place to manage the upper market international tourism trade in a very nasty and self cemterd way, where few would get rich and many would suffer bankruptcy.

take your time and do the home work yourself.  Me telling you that #UNCLEANDREW was bad is not going to help, as nearly every person I speak to has been subject to the #IWPA public perception management strategy that makes the CEO (  #UNCLEANDREW ) look good and right for the job.  How ever once one gets on the ground and talks to the folks who have lost their livelihoods one sees a very different picture.  Problem is that the news papers and other media are afraid of government reprisals, should they say anything untoward.  #UncleAndrew and his team within the inner workings of the ANC have ensured that the truth is well hidden and buried under so much red tape that those looking soon give up.  

Problem is that nature reveals all, and the natural ecosystems within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park are now about to be revaled for what they are....   A DISASTER ZONE and not a paradise as the IWPA and associates have been trying to convince the public.

It is my personal opinion that Andrew Zaloumis should be held criminally liable for the loss of habitat and breeding grounds for marine species within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site.

Where to from here ?  Well I suggest that you read this blog next, before making any decisions...