Author: Sean Lange

eThekweni issues warning about it’s own incompetence

eThekweni issues warning about it’s own incompetence: with so much irony, that it almost sounds like they are actually doing their job by warning us of the toxic water conditions that they themselves have created.

Water management

Is the most basic and the most important duty that a government or municipality has the honour of carrying through for its people. Without clean water, we are doomed.

• bathing, surfing and diving will be too dangerous due to the water borne ecoli
• fish will die in the estuaries which are already down to 1%. The knock-on effect will reach the farthest reaches of our local reef and marine ecosystem
• we will have to boil tap water before we use it for anything
• we will have to buy water from the corporates who probably have a hand in this pollution

Except, oh shit! This has already all happened!

Fish kills at Isipingo and Umgeni Estuaries

These two estuaries have both got the potential to be valid contributors to the KZN estuary system that we have systematically destroyed over the last hundred years. By farming the land to shreds. For cash crops and livestock. Using dodgy fertilisers and pesticides pushed to these profiteering farmers by Monsanto and friends like a sophisticated drug dealing network.

And now by eThekweni Municipality totally failing it’s water management mandate, we have fish kills. With their knockon effects.

Isipingo had the same scene last year. It also made the news. This year was no different in calamity. SO many gorgeous fish.

But the Umgeni fish kill really broke me down. That was a large percentage of KZN’s estuary fish all killed right there. Rare and protected species. There were little baby kingfish in there. So many beautiful little koblets. And the spotted grunter – heartbreaking as they could be seen in the video – gasping for breath with their heads out of the water trying to breath some oxygen in.

You see, the sewage and pollution lies on the bottom with all the other oxygen destroying stuff. The top level of water has the oxygen that the fishies can survive in. The dry season kicks in. Water extraction upriver goes on unchecked for both industry and farming. The water stops flowing. The mouth silts up and starts to close as the east winds start up for spring. The tide hardly makes a difference and is restricted to the lower reaches. The weather changes for the warmer or the wind blows extra hard and the top layer is evaporated. The bottom layer becomes the top and the fish die of suffocation.

Every time. Over and over. Except this time a huge chunk of KZN’s fish nursery stock were murdered in one fell swoop.

Don’t drink the water!

If you live in Durban – your drinking water also comes from the Umgeni sometimes, best you be very careful. The same thing happens down here in the UGU warzone. Except here they blame it on easily managed salt regression (just turn the pumps off a few hours), in the Umzimkulu River. And plan to build a berm blocking the last free-flowing river left in KZN.

These are the symptoms you may suffer if you ingest contaminated water:

Signs/Symptoms of Drinking Contaminated Water

• Gastrointestinal Problems.
• Diarrhea.
• Nausea.
• Intestinal or Stomach Cramping.
• Intestinal or Stomach Aches and Pains.
• Dehydration.
• Death.

Don’t go in the water

Yip, that happened too now, bathing is banned at most Durban beaches as the toxic soup gets distributed by wind, waves and currents that pull in ALL directions.

“?? ETHEKWINI NEWSFLASH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 AUGUST 2022

CITY CLOSES SOME BEACHES DUE TO HIGH E-COLI LEVELS

The public is informed that the City has taken the decision to close some beaches with immediate effect due to high levels of E-coli in the water.

This decision is as a consequence of recent water testing results which confirmed high levels of E-coli.

All water activities such as swimming, surfing, fishing, bathing, canoeing, and other activities taking place at City beaches are therefore prohibited. Beachgoers are urged to heed this warning as disregarding it could result in outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

Closed beaches include Westbrook, uMhlanga Main, uMdloti, Casuarina, eThekwini Beach, Laguna Seasonal Beach, Ansteys Beach, Brighton Beach, Isiphingo Beach, Reunion Beach, Warner Beach, Amanzimtoti Main Beach, and Pipeline Beach.

Residents can still enjoy other activities along the beach that do not require them to come into contact with sea water.

Lifeguards and law enforcement officers will be on site to monitor the beaches to ensure the public adheres to the closures.

The public will be notified when the beaches are deemed safe to utilise.

ENDS
Issued by the eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit. For media enquiries contact Municipality’s Spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela on 060 966 4220″

It really sounds like they are proud of the warning they have just submitted to the very people they are meant to be protected from themselves.

Here’s the thing

A few days before all of this fish murder catstrophe, the following story went around ,about a poor guy with a little gill net, getting arrested. At the pump station in the Umgeni Estuary…

REPORT

Good afternoon sir.

This morning SAR members were called out to Umgeni River for reported gillnetting. Based on information and active communication with the informant/complainant we were able to identify
3 suspects who were in possession of home made craft two nets, and five fish.

We gave chase. The suspects fled into the bush and into the water.

They abandoned about 500m of gillnetting with their catch and craft. The nets were 4 cm square with 9 cm stretch and estimated to be about 500m long in total.

The fish were taken to Ushaka specialists for identification and stats.

The fish that were abandoned were;

5 Mozambican Tiliapa
230mm female
230mm female
225mm female
260mm male
300mm male
1 Flat head mullet
390 mm

In the absence of suspects all abandoned equipment was distroyed as saps would not recieve perishables in the Saps 13 register.

Ok, so this subsistence fisher taking a few mullet and tilapia – both species unrestricted and easy to target specifically got chased and almost arrested. And the eThekweni Municipality? They kill thousands upon thousands of fish in one go. Over and over again. And is even ONE person accused of ANY crime?

What we can’t see dead in the water is the real problem. All the millions of larvae and fry. Tiny beautiful animals taken at childbirth.

Habitat destruction.

eThekweni’s response

Is the same horse shit all over again. We just heard their very own David Wilson who is somehow responsible for making up excuses:

• somebody poured something very poisonous into a manhole or something
• it was not ecoli levels that caused the fish to suffocate in tepid still water
• the Umgeni is a fast-flowing river that is tidal
• it is normal for an entire treatment plant to go offline for months like at current. Since April untreated raw sewage has been going into the Umgeni. It is because of the 100 year flood
• informal settlements discharge straight into the river (this is the one true statement in this list)
• Umgeni discharge water goes north and so cannot affect Durban’s main beaches
• the Umgeni will heal itself

Yip. I just heard all that ignorance on the radio right now. Whilst also admitting that their treatment plant cannot be fixed due to a complete lack of security and management. The treatment plant was electrified and looted by vandals so nobody could work there?! Who makes this shit up? Or why not just call the cops?

This is why we have fish kills. Levels of ignorance this high at government level.

Final Comment

Goes out to all those so-called conservationists and sport anglers who incessantly moan and complain about there being no fish in the Umgeni Estuary.

Well.

You are totally wrong. Look at those fish in the pics and videos! That you should have been protecting from the evil and destructive clutches of the eThekweni Municipality.

That IS your job.

It’s definitely NOT a guarantee anymore but we do have clean water in the Umzimkulu Estuary at the moment. We also have cool riverfront accommodation and plenty of fishing and other activities on the go. You can even go surfing.

Who gonna get the 1st couta this 2022/23 season?

Who gonna get the 1st couta this 2022/23 season?

2021/22

Last year the spearos won this race by a nautical mile. Gavin Nell shot this fish way early. So early. October early! Out on the shoal in some clean and warm conditions.

2020/21

The year before went to the kayakers. Two fish were caught on the very same day. On the very same outing. In November! The first fish in a hatch was by Jonno Gouws. A few moments later, Justin Campbell got an even bigger one. They both paddled their fish in at Winkle with the wind blowing them south at speed.

Enjoy the video with authentic sound byte from the kayak…

Quick gallery of that wondrous day…back on the beach!

2019/20

We seem to have missed this year’s first couta.

2018/19

We had thought we caught the first couta this season on the Niteshift. But it turned out someone else had gotten one a few days before. Please Like and Subscribe and ring that stupid little YouTube bell icon!

You can get to the channel here – TSN.

Back to the present

So ok, we are good to go down here on the all-of-a-sudden sunny KZN South Coast. Spring has most definitely shown some interest. The fishing is as good as it gets.

We have the Umzimkulu Estuary here in a pristine state as the big tides recently have allowed the salt water to come right in and flush the place right out. You can see the full picture by watching the video in this post. Shot a week ago, it is extremely revealing.

The garrick and kob have arrived.

We have accommodation options at Umzimkulu Marina. We run charters and all sorts of adventures at Umzimkulu Adrenalin.

And you can follow it all on The Sardine News!

Grunter Alley ambush by Goby One Kanobi

Grunter Alley ambush by Goby One Kanobi: choose the right days in the KZN Winter and this is what you are in for…sunny skies. Warm and clean water. And. Winter gamefish!

Winter Gamefish

Already the garrick have come inside and have been terrorising the many shoals of mullet and little silver bream. And there have been a few concerning sightings of GTs too. Big ones! These guys are nocturnal in the estuaries and those big explosions that keep you up at night when visiting here – can be blamed squarely on that gang.

The zambezi’s have been consistent too. Making their appearances also mainly during the readily available night time slots.

Many kob have been getting caught out on the sandspit. Yes, at night time. And man-oh-man it’s hard work. You got to set up and prepare for the all-night boogie if you want one of those huge fish. Get in touch if you have what it takes.

Shaun, David and Kiran

All the way down from Jhb, these guys know how to time it right They also had a few days so were able to plan around the weather.

We fished the mouth area of the Umzimkulu River estuary in Port Shepstone, KZN, on this fine day. Since this was the best area as we vied for the warmer, more fish-filled water. Melting snow on the Drakensberg has been keeping the upper reaches of the estuary extremely cold. Like 13 degrees!

And so we trolled a few lures from Umzimkulu Adrenalin down to the chosen spot. Setup fishing camp, and gave it a shot.

Enjoy this smash hit featuring Goby One Kanobi and the Spotted Grunters…

Goby One Kanobi

Sometimes we just get walk-in volunteers here at The Sardine News. And on this shoot, none other than Goby One Kanobi himself popped in front of the lens. For more than one appearance.

This guy is so cute and is an absolute natural on camera. He got all the moves and love the mirror reflection of himself in the camera lens.

Thanks Goby – I know exactly where to find you for next time!

African Damsel

An African Damsel glides across the screen in scene 2. Having taken the form of a graceful and regal African Spadefish. In the estuary! She moves so incredibly slowly, no wonder the spearos can’t miss them.

The Cape Stumpnose community was represented too. But there were notably less small fish that each of the last few trips we have made down this way,

And this is why…

The Spotted Grunter ambush position

Grunter Alley. Or more technically known as first bank. Is where the big grunter hang out – in ambush position. As the tide wafts water in through the mouth, it spills out all sorts of crunchy crustaceany morsels that these fish will eat. They will not eat a sardine bait when they are in this lively ambush state (As seen on camera).

I would only chuck a fly at these guys. Or a Dirty Prawn Umzimkulu Special bucktail, worked exactly right. To mimic a prawn bouncing along getting dragged with the tide. My cameras have picked up many large prawns coming IN the mouth on the pushing tide. Huge prawns like 6 inches long. Coming flying past and into the estuary. Coming to breed and populate.

And get eaten by these big grunter.

Wildeperd

There is a sheepshead in Oz, and another exact-looking species up the West Coast. Deemed to all be different. But these three fish all look exactly the same to me. They act the same too – very camera shy, but quite aggressive nonetheless. I have only filmed wildeperd underwater in the estuary a few times over the last few years. They normally hang out on the backline reefs and deeper.

Yes, you can call them Zebrafish!

And Kiran caught and released a healthy teenager, at the end of the day.

Great job Kiran!

By The Sardine News

Rightio, this is definitely the time to be fishing. After the floods and all the craziness before that, you deserve to take a day or two off and come and hunt estuary gamefish in the name of research – with us. We release almost all our fish. Oftentimes with an ORI tag in it.

Bring your own I am running out!

Fishing and cruising activities are found right HERE on the Umzmkulu Adrenalin website. We got accommodation options at the Umzimkulu Marina, and Spillers House. And restaurants all around us including Garlic n Naan and Fish on the River.

Alchemy can save our KZN estuaries – featuring video with Benoit Leroy

Here in KZN, along the eastern seaboard of South Africa, we have systematically destroyed 99% of our estuaries.
Agriculture did this. We did agriculture.
Swathes of indigenous thickets and bush were ruthlessly replaced by invasive plants. Sugar. Wattle. Bluegum (these days it’s macadamias).
This was done before in colonial expansionist times. Nobody seemed to have a clue as to what they were doing to this planet.
All so that instead of walking places and growing our own food at home – we take taxis, cars and buses, work as wage slaves, to go buy food miles away in a grocery store?! Destroying our very habitat with each purchase.

And making those in the current revenue streams and in power, richer. And you, poorer as your earthly inheritance is destroyed for profit centric individuals and entities. Who got their positions from politics or inheritance in the first place.

Indigenous destruction

The removal of this indigenous buffer of bush has made for the inability of the earth in this region to absorb flood waters. Now it just runs straight down along the furrows and canals made by these profiteering farmers to remove the exact same water we need to stay there. Into the river that has been silted up by this exact practice. It bursts its banks. And people die.

This is what we have done.

Old habits

Things have changed. We now do have all the clues we need to make better decisions. We do not have to walk in the footsteps of our uninformed ancestors.

We have got these days, technology. Which brings forth a myriad of options on how to tackle a problem. We do not need to go back in time and use archaic failed methods to remedy modern human-made problems.

We do not need our last free-flowing estuary to suffer the same fate as all the 99% of the other estuaries have faced. Total commensurate destruction. By restricting the tidal and flood pulse. With unnatural barriers. Concrete.

We do not need to live with invasive species that have destroyed the very land which we inherited in perfect shape a hundred years ago.

We do not need to continue our destructive ways with the earth, it’s rivers and the oceans.

Desalination

Desalination. Will save the day here in Port Shepstone. Will bring water. Will bring hydrogen. Will bring prosperity to the area.

And will restore the estuaries.

But will not line the pockets of the surveyors, lobbyists, scientists, developers, politicians and others who rely on the archaic and completely unjust colonial system to maintain their big lifestyles on.

These profit-driven people want to build a concrete dam wall, or weir, right across the mighty Umzimkulu River. To abstract even more water from the already ailing river. Instead of a desalination plant.

For the same money!

Our money, to be precise.

Enjoy the picture show…

The big lie

And so here lies yet another aspect to the questionable problem of saltwater ingression.

The big lie. Saltwater intrusion to the St. Helen’sPump Station, 9kms upriver.

Even carp and bass get caught below the pump station in the dry season.

In my opinion, not a grain of sea salt has been near the pump station EVER! Prove me wrong. Because I know it was raw sewage being sucked out of the river and showing urine as salt. I know because I live here. Sewage pumps into the river all day every day because local government has failed to manage the once-functioning system year after year now. Spending exorbitant amounts on temporary non-functional and wasteful, environmentally damaging berms. Totally illegally.

Zambezi sharks have only this free-flowing river in KZN in which to still breed. St. Lucia is open now but it was closed for so long that all those Zambezi lost their breeding ground. When the estuary was opened recently by conservation activists, hundreds of pup Zambezi sharks we seen everywhere in the following days. These big mommas must have been waiting and waiting and waiting. No fair.

Turtles, all 4 species we get here, use the Umzimkulu, to rid themselves of unwanted parasites. They come inside the estuary for weeks. Venturing right up to the freshwater, where the parasites can’t live. And they fall right off! Like a carwash for turtles.

The fabulously difficult fish to catch – our indigenous Ox-eye Tarpon, lives way upriver, in the fresh, But cruises right on down to the salt to breed and spawn.

“It’s not sea salt! It’s sewage.”

I was here when the wolf cry went out. We tasted the water even! I know what saltwater tastes like. This was sewage water in our drinking water system. It smelt. Stank actually.

I would like to make an appeal for the salt level records of the pump station to be made available to the public. It is in the public interest to see how the decision to spend R200 million or more on damming a fully-functional estuary, comes about.

UGU Leaks

Any water problems we have here are actually due to the thousands of leaks all around the UGU District. Like the one under the low-level bridge across the river – over two years flat our blasting water back into where it came from. At our expense.

These are the problems that needs to be fixed. The system will operatee fine without the leaks. Wait until you read about St. Helen’s waterfall (coming soon).

How does anyone think that extracting more water from the already suffering system, will help the future? The river only has so much water and we have polluted and extracted it to a maximum threshold.

Fix the pipes! Use your endless budget to fix all that is broken. Use it to embrace and deploy the best and most relevant technologies to our problem here.

Summary

This is not the current government’s fault. But it is their duty to fix it. Or what are doing in office in the first place?

Advice to kids – don’t go into development, surveying or construction. Do research and conservation. Horticulture and aquaponics. Botany. Biology. Anything rather than end up like these guilty parties.

Use concrete for the right things. Not profit.

Words by Sean Lange. Video by Benoit Leroy produced by The Sardine News.

Come and check the river out yourself with Umzimkulu Adrenalin.

Sardine situation? This photo tells all…

The sardine situation this year is vastly different to that of last at this time.

A sardine spy sent this picture in the other day. You can hardly see much. There are sardines. Way out the back. And there is the Indian Ocean alright. But it’s dirty!

And although the recent flooding has most to do with it, our infrastructure’s inability to cope with flood conditions is all to blame. More specifically, the government’s complete failure to maintain and upgrade the floodwater and sewage systems with time and urban growth.

Whole houses and roads fall away to nothing. Because there was nothing underneath them to hold them in place in the first place. Entire homes and streets were washed completely away. Development and urbanisation has outpaced the ability of the government to keep upgrading the infrastructure that all this new development relies on.

Why?

Well because the ruling party have absolutely crippled the state. And its ability to function as a cognitive whole that garners goodwill and respect from the people by serving the people.

By exploiting the system that is meant to maintain the infrastructure, they have failed the people in their entirety. No water. Rolling blackouts. Looting. Demonstrations. Road closures.

No matter which class you are from, upper, middle or lower, this government does not care about you. It only cares about its ability to advance itself as the ruling political party.

Politics is to blame. The fact that a ruling party can appoint sorely qualified or completely unqualified personnel in key positions. This is the end of any credibility a democratic society can believe in or be a part of.

Let the best person for the job, do the job.

Brown water – what is it?

When an entire mountainside collapses into a mudslide and washes into the ocean during a flood – what effect on the seawater would that have? Which officials gave the permission to build so dangerously?

When an entire chemical factory is looted and burned by an unhappy populace, and the chemicals leak into the bathing beaches of Durban and surrounding tourist towns- who did that?

When the sewage that is supposed to be filtered and purified and put back into nature, does not happen and raw sewage perpetually goes into the stormwater drains, our rivers and into the sea – who did that? (see Margate Beach being polluted by non-functioning UGU sewage pumps in the gallery below 1. load-shedding rendered the main pumps useless you can see the raw sewage bubbling out of the overflow valve, and flowing right into the Margate Estuary. 2 It flows unimpeded down towards the coast. 3. passes the holiday accommodation area featuring dead fish floating and being eaten by birds 4. the raw untreated stinking sewage spills out right into the sea where tourists are bathing – the inshore counter-currents take this sewage to neighbouring beaches like Uvongo).

So when a family of 24 come on holiday to Uvongo, and 23 end up in the hospital poisoned from swimming in the lagoon – who let that happen?

When 99% of our estuaries are rendered completely non-functional by erosion and fatal land management- what happens when they flood? They break their banks and cause untold chaos and misery. And death. Who failed us there?

When an illegal berm that threatens the estuarine functioning of the mighty Umzimkulu River is procured by UGU and gets washed away within a week of installation – where does all that soil go? Who did that? And the R5 000 000 odd that it costs each time? They have built it again and again…who did that?

The government did all of these things.

Well, that is what we are dealing with. A solid band of brown dirty disgusting polluted and stinky water that is now choking the inshore surf zone waters of this entire coastline. Countercurrents and prevailing onshore winds keep it right under our noses. Until finally the Agulhas Current can dissolve and hide it from us forever.

So what is it actually again?

Well, it will definitely give you an earache. First-hand experience. Was deaf for months from treatments. Blew every speaker I could find.

It is made up of engine oil and other grime from the roads and floors everywhere. Its dirt and dust from every town in the country. It is rubbish and discarded everything. It is fertilizer and pesticides. It is rotting foodstuffs and decaying packaging. It is lethal hospital waste. It is toxic chemicals from that burned plant in Durban. It is untreated sewage.

And it’s keeping the sardines out. Sardines swim in clean clear water when they come on holiday. Not the stinking mess left here by the people in charge.

Just like tourists.

And that is the current sardine situation.

What’s nextfor the sardine situation?

Well, the prevailing east winds have been extra-mean recently. These onshore winds cause upswelling and blows the dirty stuff right back into the beaches and estuaries. Then the west winds come along and reverse the procedure. Until all the brown stuff is finally dissipated into the Agulhas Current and taken into the depths. This would normally have taken a month or so. But with the double-whammy storms this year, we have maybe 20x more pollution to deal with.

As for the future. Well, we need to restore our rivers and estuaries. Catchment areas. And floodplains. This is the system that would quite easily handle floods like the last two. But as greedy humans, we have ripped out all the indigenous vegetation that acted as the primary sieve and sponge for these radical flood conditions. This savannah-like bush was insensitively removed and sugar cane and other cash crops planted. Pesticides were used to increase production in the 70s. And demand-induced careless ploughing and drainage saw topsoil heading for the coast. The next barrier to disaster – the flood plains are now golf courses, farms or houses. And finally, the rivers and estuaries are silted up so much that 99% of our estuaries in KZN do not function as estuaries at all. They have all been systematically destroyed. They break their banks and cause water to divert through towns, and settlements – undermining roads, buildings, and foundations at huge cost in life and property damage.

We really need a responsible government already. If we don’t stop immediately and reverse the damage we have done to 99% of our rivers and estuaries in KZN, then we have failed ourselves. Miserably. The knock-on effect will wipe out every endemic species that use our rivers and estuaries as breeding grounds and nurseries. With devastating effects on the ocean environment and its inhabitants waiting on down the line.

By Sean Lange

Never miss a sardine situation update by tuning in to The Sardine News. Where we run a Sardine Sightings map each year. Making it easy for you to compare seasons.

If you are in the Port Shepstone area, Umzimkulu Adrenalin can take you out on the water. Ocean Safari, fishing and estuary trips – depending on tides and conditions. We have accommodation at the Umzimkulu Marina and at Spillers House. And great food at The Port Captain and Fish on the River.