Mozambique Malongane Spearfishing Magic

Garrick Morris 35kg Wahoo Speared at Malongane

Garrick is making a habit over the last few weeks of shooting good fish. I can just hear the mutters from the peanut gallery ... me included!!
But if you dont go you dont get lucky!!

Here is Garrick's mesagge he sent:

Hi Guys

Went up to Malongane in Moz this weekend and hit a serious luck with this nice Wahoo. Only spent about 3 hours in the water because of the wind but the Wahoo were wild when we got in. This fish was far from the biggest one that we saw.

Cheers
Garrick

Man I am green ... like the sea is this morning!!

Coatesman

Crayfish Poaching

There has been allot of publicity lately of all the proposed MPA's that will close off huge areas to the public. These areas in many instances will make Spearfishing almost impossible, take the proposed area from Sheffield beach to Zinkwazi. If they pass this the only place we will be allowed to dive is Tiffanies and south towards Westbrook and La Mercy.

So Why bring all of this up again? Well when guys get busted for poaching in the very area the greenies are having a heart attack over well that can not be good for our sport or our cause.

I dont think there is any one who argue good conservation ...but when they give us a total ban. Every one will loose out.

Here is the article posted in the Daily News.

Massive fine for poacher

23 August 2009, 09:06

By Fred Kockott

Amid increased crayfish poaching along KwaZulu-Natal's coastline, KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife officials have welcomed the slapping of a R100 000 fine or two years imprisonment on Howick crayfish poacher Paul Wilfred Ferguson.

Bust for catching 47 crayfish at Hyde Park beach at Nonoti on the North Coast, nine of which were undersized, Ferguson was convicted in the Stanger Magistrate's Court on Friday.

He was convicted for not having a licence, exceeding the daily bag limit of eight crayfish and being in possession of undersized crayfish.

R85 000 of his sentence was suspended for five years on condition he was not convicted of the same offence, and Ferguson walked free after paying R15 000.

Welcoming Ferguson's conviction, Ezemvelo spokesman Wayne Munger said there had been a noticeable increase in the number of crayfish offences that KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife staff were encountering.

He said this was due to high prices paid for crayfish on the black market.

"Hopefully the sentence that Ferguson got will serve as a wake-up call to others who are catching crays illegally," said Munger.

Munger said Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife conducted regular patrols along the 620km stretch of coastline from Port Edward to Kosi Bay, and prosecuted as many as 1 200 offenders of the Marine Living Resources Act every year, 20 percent of which are crayfish related. 

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife officer Selvan Pillay said he had been working on a marine patrol when he and his team noticed Ferguson diving at Hyde Park beach on Thursday.

"We concealed ourselves and watched what he was doing. He left the water with a bag and hid it in the bushes," said Pillay.

"When we confronted him, he was really shocked, but there was nothing he could do," said Pillay. 

"We found 47 crayfish in his bag, nine of which undersized. He acknowledged that he had broken the law."

This article was originally published on page 2 of The Sunday Tribune on August 23, 2009

So expect that "Parky" to be hiding in the bushes!! I know some things were more or less accepted in the past by the general diving community. I just think its time we started looking out for ourselves and kept our noses clean.

Or we could be in for a big shock!!

Coatesman

Spearfishing in the Gap

Garrick with a 38kg Daga speared of Durban

With all the wild weather the sea was a mess before the weekend. But rumors of clean water off Durban filtered through and the guys who heard the call and took the gap came right.
Garrick clapped this 38kg beast off the Fontao.
And I heard stories of some daga off the Nebo aswell.

Up the coast there was also a small gap on Sunday before the wind and the snoek were loose. One chap clapped a couple but got taxed before he could hit the beach. I tried later on Sunday bt the wind really messed things up, and it will go down as not one of my best dives ever!

The east is pumping and it looks like the sea will return to being upside down!! But there is hope for Saturdays dive ... Who knows?

Look out for that Gap!!

Coatesman

Minutes ASCBOA meeting

I got this in the mail and thought you guys needed to read it.

Hi All

Just a basic summary of the KZN MPA expansion workshop that was attended by Mark B and myself last week. After two long days there were presentations by Dr Jean Harris, Dr Kerry Sink, Alan Boyd (MCM), Peter Chadwick (WWF) Bruce Mann, Mandy Lombard, Grant Trebble and a whole lot more. The basic jist of the meeting was about this great mathematical software that once all the inputs have been entered spits out recommended areas for either creating MPA’s and expanding some and rezoning some. In laymen language they want to protect 20% of all fauna and flora on the SA coast. So if you protect 20% of everything then the Idea is that there will be enough of everything to take us into the future for our children’s children. There is also a view to try and have MPA’s in conjunction with terrestrial protected areas in order to get that land sea thing. Each needs each other in the big picture.The big problem with this is that all the inputs are coming from the users such as the fishermen, spear fishermen and apparently divers. With a result the very places that the spearos have given them are now subject to protection and zoned as no take areas. It was quite evident that the clever people giving presentations talked about the current MPA’s as though they were giving protection to marine life. It was also quite evident that the audience other than those in the know received this information as though there was protection in the current MPA’s and accepted it as such.

Observations from the various speakers (Not All) were as such:-

Dr Gene Harris eKZNW

Took Underwater Africa’s presentation as a reality check for all the scientists as to what’s happening on the ground. That there is a huge communication gap between the policy makers and the people on the ground and what’s actually happening. (Strange, I thought that’s what we keep telling them from ages ago) There was also talk that user groups should be taking part in this process from planning stages as they can Identify practical problems on the ground. In doing this they will also have input into the process and therefore more buy in.

Alan Boyd (MCM)

Was probably the worst presentation and it is clear ther is no trust between MCM and the user groups. There were comments in the audience that they cant understand why we are not MCM’s biggest ally being non consumptive. Nobody in the audience other than those in the know understands all the problems with the current MPA’s.The most disturbing thing in Alan Boyd’s presentation was that it seems that there is quite a lot of things in process that is going to give MCM the power to regulate most non consumptive users in MPA’s. (A scary thought)

Rob Crankshaw (Clansthal Conservancy)

He spoke about the rezoning of the Aliwal Shoal MPA to include the river at Widenham the land in between and the last river just south of the crock farm forming the eThekwini southern border. These two rivers would be the northern and southern boundary of lines going out to sea forming no take zones. I don’t believe they talked to any of the diving fraternity which leads me to believe they have ulterior motives for their noble cause. Basically the  right thing for the wrong reasons. Funny between MCM and the greater planners their ideas and legislation is all the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Of all the other potential MPA’s two will incorporate Protea Banks and the Bluff. Funny that’s all the places that scuba divers use. The other thing is that at least 3 of the MPA’s tabled currently have beaches serviced by the sharks board. So more MPA’s with shark nets. All they will do is zone the MPA and give permits to NSB to continue.

Some of the MPA’s tabled are zoned so intricately that trying to police the Aliwal MPA would be a walk in the park compared. That is if you have the resources to police them. It was tabled that they can’t police the current ones so why create more. Acording to Cedric Coetzee they have the money and resources. There seems to be a huge gap (communication & financial) between the upper echelons of KZN wildlife and the people on the ground. In the same breath it was decided that compliance was only going to be possible with the help from the users, especially the non consumptive ones. Quite difficult when you keep creating these laws and permits/ conditions that keep ticking us off.

Talking of zoning it was noted that all current MPA’s have different inconsistencies with zones, Zone A, Zone B and Zone C. Zone a being sanctuary No entry only travel through but not be in possession of fish etc and by the way you are only allowed to stop if you are sinking, B being no take zones though pelagic fishing is allowed but it must be catch and release, and Zone C which you are allowed to keep fish (Pelagic only) and no bottom fishing allowed. If you apply this to Aliwal it does not make sense as all the almost opposites apply. (The core area being zone B and the rest being zone C)

There seems to be some initiatives that may be explored with the WWF. The WWF is all for partnerships with business and they have some interesting concepts.

Well that was pretty much it in a nutshell. We did have lunch on the eKZNW budget and we clearly saw why they cant afford to launch their boats as day one lunch snacks or sandwiches were diabolical.

I am sure at the next meeting we will catch up with this regard. The other thing that was evident is that if one does not have a body that represents your user group they will run over you as you wont have the opportunity to attend forums such as this and stand up against all the shortcomings and people that make inadequate policy, rules and regulations that reflect on not only the environment but on us negatively.

Anyone want more info with this regard please contact either me or Mark B and I am sure we can elaborate.

Regards

 

Juan