Category: Commentary

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State of our Oceans by Mr. Al Spaeth

Sardine activity reported moving up towards KZN

State of our Oceans by Mr. Al Spaeth

Like great author and eye opener – Callum Roberts, author of “The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea”  and other tales of environmental gloom and doom, Mr. Al Spaeth, in his description of the state of our oceans and our fisheries, has the ability to put things way into perspective.

Read his shocking synopsis of our particular piece of ocean’s predicament, at the following link…

http://pedsac.co.za/8-articles.html

Mr. Spaeth is particularly focused on our South African waters and their fisheries. But this is happening, and has happened, all over the globe, in so many other ignorant countries. Where greedy and ignorant governments and their parastatals, give away the resources of their people, in exchange for under the table rewards or incentives.

His call-to-action, to mimic the CCA (Coastal Conservation Association ), in the United States, is our only chance. They are a very effective watchdog association of anglers in the United States, that campaign for the fish and the environment, as well as educate the public fishing community at large. On pertinent environmental issues at hand. And we have many. The sardines, squid, and tuna that Mr. Spaeth addresses, are just three. What about the plight of the poor shad this year?! No DAFF’s anywhere?! Bucket loads leaving the beach.

The CCA in America is the type of organisation Mr. Al Spaeth is advocating
The CCA in America is the type of organisation Mr. Al Spaeth is advocating

This is what they do over there, very successfully…

ON A LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LEVEL WE…

• Initiate scientific studies.
• Fund marine-science scholarships.
• Build artificial reefs.
• Create finfish hatcheries.
• Monitor the quality and quantity of freshwater inflows.
• Support local marine law enforcement.
• Help establish game fish status for recreational species.
• Work to prohibit destructive commercial gear.

ON A FEDERAL LEVEL WE…

• Defend net bans.
• Work to implement bycatch reduction regulations.
• Support pro-fisheries legislation.
• Battle arbitrary no-fishing zones.

You can read all about them and their successes against their government at this link…

http://www.joincca.org/about

Anybody else keen to get involved, and has the time and resources, jump in now by filling out the form below…I have been in touch with the CCA, and they are prepared to assist. We just need some momentum. In the meantime we are calling the movement CCASA (Coastal Conservation Association of Southern Africa). If there are any other established or fledgling groups like the CCA, already operating in South Africa, Namibia or Mozambique, please let me know on umzimkulu@gmail.com.

 

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Maputo: old and new

Maputo: old and new

When I first drove into Maputo, in 1991, I was astounded.

It was bigger then than Pretoria was at the time!

The skyline grew into the clouds as we got closer, the buildings were so impressive from far. But when we got close we saw the destruction wrought. It was chaos. The holes in the road (don’t read potholes), could have fit our whole car in! And hardly anyone had clothes. I am not joking. Rags.

And then there were the AK47’s. Everyone had one. And no uniforms. So we never knew who we were giving our money to!

But come into Maputo today…

The new bridge to Catembe, a year or so away from completion, completely takes over the skyline. The buildings have all been brought back into operation of sorts (some have no lifts still, to ten floors or more – cheap rent). But it’s the new buildings that are just to gawdily over impressive.

The gawdy new Bank of Moz building is a wnhite elephant of immense proportions and is contributing finely to the overll not well being of the economy. The building reportedly uses about the same power as the rest of the entire city?! And entirely unnecessary contribution to the downfall of Mozambique's economy.Art deco meets aluminium?!Downtown MaputoThe old steel house downtown Maputo - designed by the same dude who designed the Eiffel tower - yes, EiffelThe new bridge going up over the bay, fast!The new bridge ought to open up in time for December or so we are all hopingThe very old and the very new - these stone warehouses are ancient

This gallery is an attempt to balance the old and the new…in a town that is growing and growing, in so many aspects. Commerce. Tourism. Manufacturing. Farming. Crime. Corruption. Yes, watch out. As with every boom town, the criminals are there. Petty, blue and white collar, and sometimes violent. My dear friend was recently violently mugged of her cellphone on the way home from theatre at night. And it’s on the up, so please, take every precaution. Especially with the uniformed sort. They are well known to plant something on your for extortion purposes. And having watched enough western movies, are quite good at what they do.

But staying positive, Maputo is growing into a cultural centre where many races and creeds live together, and prosper. Hence the gallery, which stems from the nostalgic feeling I get, driving past the old LM Radio building, the grand theatres downtown, the stone warehouses on the foreshore, the colonial grandeur in the old administration buildings…and the quaintly adorned streets and roads.

Trees everywhere.

A beautiful African city.

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Social: When and how often should I post?

Social networking has changed the way we reach out to people - The Sardine News

Social: When and how often should I post?

Social marketing by The Sardine News

How often and where should I be posting on my social networks? A vital consideration that can make or break your campaigning efforts. Thie questions have been answered by many independent survey people and companies all over the web. This is what I have gleaned from the average of what they all have to say, about when and how often to post to your social networks.

  • Facey: Thursday, Friday and Saturdays are the cooking days for Facey. Earlier in the week, people are more work focused. Posting times are best after or before work hours during the week. Anytime on the weekends.
  • Twitting: Twitter is more rapid fire, but keep same times as Facebook, for best results.
  • Email marketing: It turns out that emails are best sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at lunch time and up to 5pm. People generally check email all day, but the bustling mornings produce less opens than the lazy afternoons.
    Note* Tuesdays are the most productive day of the week, after Mondays, for performance in the work place. This performance generally peaks on Tuesday, and dwindles into Friday. Saturdays are quite good, for the unfortunate who have to work on a weekend.

Re-posting

Something none of us do enough of, is re-post. Approximately 4%, yes – 4%, of your followers even see your post once. So you have every right, and even a duty, to re-post your hard work, a few times. For us to enjoy!

Facebook is quite sensitive and I recommend re-posting every morning and evening, for a few days. Then again the next week one or two more days, the next again, and then taper off as a month rolls by. So you could end up posting the same post in the same place up to 10 or 12 times, in it’s first month of deployment.And then, a year later, Facey will probably remind you, that you can post again a few times.It is quite possible that some of your posts will be relevant and contemporary even if written a long while ago. In this time you Groups or Pages, would have collected more Likers and Followers, that never had a chance at seeing your completely cool and relevant post.

Twitter is less sensitive and therefore gave rise to Hootsuite and it’s many auto-posting contemporaries. You could really post and re-post on twitter many times, as the timelines are so fast and so many. Best automate re-posting here.

Google+ and LinkedIn have far slower timelines, and so you need not re-post much at all. Perhaps once a month would almost be too much. You would hate to post one on top of the other – that really looks spammy.

So what does this mean for all of us using the social network platforms to market our business’?

Get posting!

Connect with us on Facebook here…

https://www.facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

or click this for all my social profiles…

elink.io/9132d (Very interesting way of going about it, take a squiz)

 

 

 

 

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Chris Leppan Couta at Pomene from the beach

Chris Leppan Couta at Pomene

Featuring: A great reality clip of Chris’ croc couta at Pomene, caught from the beach, on a recent adventure up to ‘this paradisical place.

Meeting Chris Leppan down here at The Umzimkulu Marina for a weekend and his entourage of enthusiastic ocean people was game enough. But seeing his collection of amazing fishing stunts pulled off lately, takes things to a new level. I thought he was just a surfer?!

Not only will you read about here in upcoming weeks, and see videos of, huge king mackerel taken from the beach like the one featured in this video below. But also of even huger couta Chris shot at Pomene in Southern Mozambique, in fact muuuch huger! Wait ’til you check that fish! Which Chris shot all the while being filmed by his highly capable camera expert girlfriend!

And pretty soon, we will run the video Chris got whilst taming an 80kg marlin, from his surf ski! Right in front of where he stays in Durban North?!

So enjoy this first instalment of how a waterman has fun in the afternoons…with much more to follow…

The Sardine team have been doing trips to Pomene and surrounds for a decade now. If you, or anyone you know, would like to know a bit more about the place (like the lodge is soon to be closed btw), or conditions/logistics, buzz me on umzimkulu@gmail.com. We can also arrange to get you up to Pomene – to stay in our rustic facility on the beach at the point, buzz me too!

The place is sure to be blown up, literally to smithereens, as cruise ships start their tenure in the bay later this year. No more secrets. The cat has left the building. They are doing a bunch of trips, carrying a few thousand at a time, to be dumped on the serene and unspoilt peninsula, for a day. November through April. Fortunately, these cruise ships seem to move around a heap, hopefully they will go back to Inhaca Island, where they came from, which is a far better suited venue. We did some work for the cruise ships captain when they were scouting, finding channels and parking spots for the huge ship, which is how we know this all to be true. It also has been advertised in their brochures already since last year. An alarming note is that the estuary could be closed off to access for the public. Periodically or not, we are not sure. And, there are plans to build a hotel, in the place of the old and romantic Pomene Lodge. Sad way to go…paradise found and lost.

Further waves on the horizon are reports that even more cruise ships are starting from the north. Coming down from that way, since the piracy guys have been collared. The commercial fishing fleet are also back on the water, operating out of the Seychelles and Mauritius, and so the mill keeps turning.

Bring back the pirates!

 

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Inhaca Blue Marlin bite off the scale

Inhaca Blue Marlin bite off the scale

Inhaca Blue Marlin bite off the scale

Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto.com has his finger on the pulse up and down the East Coast of Africa, and has an amazing Inhaca Blue Marlin bite to report, this March 2017.

The recent sport fishing competition held from out of Inhaca, just out from Mozambiques capital, Maputo –  reported phenomenal numbers and more numbers of marlin action. The release only tourney was a huge success for the 13 boats, who each accounted for a minimum of three fish!

The winning teams raised so many marlin, that they lost count!

An excerpt from Captain Duarte’s report…

“Yolanda won the event with the release of 7 fish, four Blues and three stripes. However, they reported sixteen bites and over thirty raised fish – they said they lost count.

Then there were two boats with 5 releases; Hakuna Matata released 3 blues and 2 striped and Aquamarine 2 Blues and 3 stripes.

Gabri got 4 fish on the day. They released a blue and two Blacks and had another Blue die on them, which got tail wrapped and could not be revived.

The guys aboard Fourplay released 3 Blues, out of 12 they either missed or pulled – and they had 19 fish up for the day.

Other fish reported where a Black by Cheetah out of three bites, and they only fished until 9am. Nakisai also released 2 Blues amongst a number of strikes. Nana released two Blues and had another one sharked by an Oceanic Whitetip, the first ever time I have heard of a fish being sharked out wide in this fishery´s. They also lost another right by the leader, and reported about 15 bites! Another boat that reported a similar number of fish on the day was Mon Ami, although they failed to convert those except on one striped they released out of the whole lot. Bite Me II released two Blues, as well as DanDan.

That´s an average of more than 3 Marlin per boat per day and not a single one of the ten boats that where specifically targeting Marlin skunked! Again, this is weekend anglers, mostly fishing out of small outboard powered trailer boats!

The mind wonders… ?” – Captain Duarte Rato

Read the whole in depth report by Duarte here.

In the meantime, to get a marlin or other gamefishing trip together in Mozambique waters, get in touch with Duarte at http://fishbazaruto.com.

Enjoy the sweet gallery of Inhaca Blue Marlin action…

Hakuna Matata 5 released marlinAnother release by CheetahAn Inhaca Blue Marlin underwater, all releasedNuno Mato co-ordinating the release of a Black Marlin off Inhaca Island2022 marlin season
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