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.

St. Lucia estuary is closed again.

 Greetings and THANX for reading here. I have had reports that the St. Lucia estuary mouth, which opened on 6 January 2021 closed again with the storm that we had as a cold front passed us in early June 2021.

Sunrise over eastern shores of lake St. Lucia, taken on the eastern cliffs of Nibela Peninsula 

The water levels at Mpilo Einde on the Nibela Peninsula are currently rather high. The issue appears to be the reed growth and silt deposits in the narrows and the delta around Broadies Crossing. The heavy reed growth and DELTA type waterflow channels here causese  water from the Umfolozi to slow down and drop it's silt load where it will cause the most long-term problems.

The fact that the mouth at St. Lucia is closed again is not a positive sign for things to come. Remember the 2017 Rehabilitation project undertaken by the Andrew Zaloumis management strategy, well it is my opinion that this strategy has caused serious damage to the biodiversity within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems. It has also connected the main stream of the Umfolozi River directly to the St. Lucia lake systems, without first flowing into the Umfolozi floodplains to drop off the the larger silt particles as the water flow spreads out into both the Monzi flat lands and the greater Umfolozi flood plains. 

This means that the greater portion of the Umfolozi River silt load is now being deposited within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems. This silt has been building up with each serious rain within the Umfolozi River catchment zones. When the flood waters subside, the silt remains. From 2017 till the St. Lucia Estuary mouth was breached artificially on 6 January 2021 these many tiny, small and mild flooding episodes within the Umfolozi catchment zones has each contributed just a little to the raising of the estuary and lake bottoms.

In some areas like the Sokulu farming zone within the base end of the Umfolozi flood plains, these large scale silt deposits have generated reed blockages which have grown to form water flow barriers, retaining high water levels at specific naturally occurring constrictions, causing long-term back-flooding.

This long-term back-flooding is a serious problem in the Sokulu farming zone, Which will only be solved by mechanical intervention, or dredging of the main water flow channels to below sea level.  This will be a mamoth task, just as dredging of the water flow channels between the northern sections of the lake and the actual estuary mouth, will also be a rather large task.

These are all, in my opinion logical issues, that can be easily seen, and understood by the average person. However past public perception management STRATEGIES of the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has laid a foundation of confusion around waterflow, mudflow and intertidal actions.

The base end of the Umfolozi flood plains in the Sukulu area used to be tidal once upon a time.. Long ago. Silt deposits from the Umfolozi River have taken their toll and filled the area with furtile soil over many generations. Now with " GLOBAL WARMING and CHANGING WEATHER PATTERNS" we as humans need to do what we can to firstly survive, then where possible prosper and enjoy lifes many bounties.

Enjoying something does not mean destroying the available natural renewable resources, so these need to be managed in a sustainable manner, and that starts with understanding the breeding and life cycles of our natural renewable resources. The St. Lucia Estuary and lake systems used to supply abundant natural renewable resources, and many up and down our coastline enjoyed this abundance. 

The extremely poor / bad ecological management of the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems by the Andrew Zaloumis management team has ensured that these natural renewable resources within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park have been seriously compromised, and in some cases even destroyed.

We want our heritage back, and have thus taken a stand on the issues around natural renewable resources and section 24 of the South African Constitution, which some folks will not appreciate, purely because their thinking has been contaminated by public perception management from those folks who want to see high end international tourism in places where nature provides us with sustainable natural renewable resources. These tourism opperators, and their high end investors, do not want to share with the folks who are living in the areas that they want to turn into tourism wonderland.

What to do ? Which way to turn?

Leave a comment and share your views.

In my next post I will discuss #Section24 of the South African Constitution. 

#Frankie2Socks 

Waterflow problems in Lake St. Lucia and the St Lucia Estuary.

 There are currently many problems facing the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems, but in my personal opinion the silt levels caused by the closure of the St. Lucia estuary mouth are currently (May 2021 )  the biggest issue that needs to be addressed.

The St. Lucia estuary mouth was closed by the IWPA ( iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ) in 2002 following the Jolly Rubino incident. When the #JollyRubino ran around in 2002; there  was a very distinct possibility that some chemical polution may occurred in the St. Lucia estuary, and the department of Environmental Affairs instructed the IWPA to MECHANICALY close  the St. Lucia estuary mouth as a precautionary measure.

The mouth to the St. Lucia estuary has remained closed ever since, with a 157 day respite in 2007, after cyclone Gumede unleashed huge waves and a storm surge on the KZN coastline. This heavy sea and associated storm surge breached the St. Lucia estuary from the ocean side causing massive and serious long term problems for the functionality of the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems.

The mouth of the St. Lucia estuary system has thus basically been closed to the Indian Ocean since the Jolly Rubino incident, and was MECHANICALY opened on 6 January 2021.

Lake St. Lucia is fed fresh water from 5 major sources, with the Umfolozi River being the largest, and the furthest South. The #UmfoloziRiver is also the biggest exporter of raw silt into the St. Lucia estuary and lake systems.  The  silt from these rivers has therefore been accumulating within the lake and estuary systems for the last 18 years

Since 2002 there have been many serious rains within the catchment  area of the Umfolozi River, and these rains have each added to the silt load within the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems. Both Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary have silted up considerably due to these big rain events.

The connecting channel that connects the northern sections of lake St Lucia to the main estuary mouth at Mapelane has silted closed, there after grown over by Reed's, and is now unable to function in a normal manner, then more flooding has dropped deeper silt layers  on-top of the Reed's and truly disconnected the northern sections of the lake from the estuary mouth.

This means that the waterflow between the northern sections of the lake and the Indian Ocean is no longer viable, causing great harm to the biodiversity of the entire St. Lucia ecosystem. The fishing industry along the entire South African Coastline has been impacted in a rather negative manner by these silted up waterflow channels.

As discussed in this short YouTube clip by the IWPA,   the St. Lucia lake and estuary systems form the core breeding grounds of many marine species. With these breeding and nursery grounds out of commission, due to poor / bad management by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority juvanile recruitment is now a very big issue.

With minimal juvanile recruitment from other esturies our fish stocks are in steady decline. Within the St. Lucia lake system, many of these species are currently locally extinct.

We need to address these issues. 

For more info send an email to 4u2fish@info4u.co.za

More coming soon.