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Death by Shark Net?

Dwarf Sperm Whale death by shark net

Death by Shark Net?

Death by Shark Net? Before we embark on this quick journey into the operations and goings-on at our very own Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board, we have a questionnaire for you! You don’t have to make public your answers. Your answers, are for you to digest.

Questionnaire

  1. How many times have you swam in the sea this year so far?
  2. How many whales, dolphins and other marine animals have to die of asphyxiation in the gill nets set by the sharks board per year, so you can go swimming? (Spoiler – it’s 500 or so)
  3. How come the entirety of the Cape has not one single shark net?
  4. Do you know that your taxes pay for the endless killing spree of the KZNSB?

Shark food for thought?

Funding

Yes, you pay for it all. With your taxes. You pay the salaries of the people who go out and do the killing. You pay for the nets and machinery that lays to waste marine life day in and day out. You pay for the fuel that those boats burn up. You pay for the administration of all this blood.

This is from Microsoft…

“The KZNSB services a combination of shark nets and recently-deployed drumlines, spread at intervals along 320 km of coastline in KwaZulu-Natal, thereby providing protection against shark attack at 38 localities. It employs about 170 staff members, most of whom put to sea on 15 boats to service the equipment.”

Purposefully laying waste to marine life. Every single day.

Dwarf Sperm Whale

Well, one thing is for sure, if not for the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board nets allegedly achieving this result, I would never have ever come across a Dwarf Sperm Whale. Unbelievably, there are two of these weird incarnations. We also get a Pygmy Sperm Whale.

Both are incredibly rare. And yet, here is a dead Dwarf version washed up in the East London area recently. It is one of four reportedly, that have died this way lately.

The original post came from a conservation group known as The Green Ripple…the animal came ashore on an East London beach.

https://web.facebook.com/savethewildcoast?cft[0]=AZUz9sXZlqXC3e7hZf6XYb4wmLmEMvuKkeFoR3YSZfjthYOt2FAJiXgCfL39jnLPcJ7ZkgMpbroyI3iYrDR_4w4Q5XlKnbmpmsBDs61NE_6z2m5SxB-RQpYhmrtiABJYtMjlbFaTc87Ka890OZEHJv2vH2N1hIB3ZUck8MK7iVtMpd-g8OrGtDwUESzqZhIaTUM&tn=-UC%2CP-R

How the whale got there is simple. The animal got free of the nets that it was entangled in. There are no pieces of net left trailing as would be the case if the animal powered itself through the shark net. It may still have been alive when it was cut free. Common practise of the KZNSB is to drag sharks or other live animals caught in the nets, a distance out to sea, and let them loose. Allegedly, this was the case with this animal.

Either way, the Agulhas Current is super-charged. It can read 6 knots at times. And when the North-East wind cranks, the surface waters can move even faster. 6 Knots is 6 miles per hour, equating to 11.11 kilometres per hour. From Port Edward (the southern-most KZNSB killing field), to East London by sea is 300 km. This means it takes barely 30 hours to drift its way out of being found beached up north.

Although many cetaceans, after death by shark net, also watch up right in KZN still.

Shark net characteristis lacerations clearly visible on baby dead whale
Shark net characteristic lacerations again visible on this baby dead Humpback whale’s body washed up at Trafalgar a few years back.

You can read all about this little whale guy right HERE.

Baby whale dies in net at Trafalgar. Shark nets most likely says lifeguard. (thesardine.co.za).

And here is a list from the other bunch of ignoramus on the planet – who also deploy this archaic and brutal practise. Yip, you guessed it – the Ozzies.

Check their list of recent and well-documented achievements…

Heartbreaking footage of a dead baby whale that died in shark nets off Gold Coast | Gold Coast Bulletin

Watch: Marine rescuers fight for two days to free young whale entangled in shark nets | Trending News – The Indian Express

Disturbing truth behind Australia’s shark nets – Nature in Mind (tracybrighten.com)

Relief As Entangled Whale Freed From Gold Coast Shark Nets | Triple M

The Dangers of Shark Nets: Humpback Whales getting Caught along the Gold Coast – Ocean Pancake

At least their press over there is wising up. There are so many stories. It turns out they have killed double the marine life than us here in South Africa.

Selling Shark Meat and Fins

Yes, they have practised it all. And they still want to do more of it…enjoy this read and clear admission of guilt. Admission of no understanding whatsoever. Of the fact that remove a shark, and there isn’t another to just take its place.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/board-in-bid-to-sell-shark-meat-1787770

This is a clear and present rogue government-sponsored organisation.

Sharks are the slowest growers out there. A White Shark matures at 30 years old or so. The Zambezi, or Bull Shark, takes 15 years to get 2 metres long and able to reproduce. There are hardly any of either of these fish left either. The population is down to a fraction of what it should be to balance the oceans out.

The Law

There is a thing called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea aka UNCLOS.

Article 65 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) addresses the conservation and management of marine mammals. Here’s a summary of its key points:

  1. States are required to cooperate for the conservation of marine mammals.
  2. In the case of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), states should work through appropriate international organizations to ensure their conservation, management, and study.

I guess we better ask Greenpeace or Sea-Shepherd for their help at this stage. Sea Shepherd have started picking on the Ozzies finally. Hopefully we will be next.

Facts and Figures From Co-Pilot (AI)…

The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB), which operates a “shark control” program using shark nets and drum lines off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, has been involved in the killing of marine animals. Over a 30-year period, the following numbers of animals were killed as part of their program:

  • Sharks: More than 33,000 sharks.

Turtles2,211 turtles.

  • Rays8,448 rays.

Dolphins2,310 dolphins1 (follow the link for more from Wikipedia too)

Conclusion

Remove the shark nets! Save everything that’s left!

Here are the same ‘alternative solutions’ I presented to the then ‘Natal Sharks Board’ in the 1990s. They would not listen to me. Four scientists and Graeme Charter did everything in their power to continue the slaughter rather than look at these technologies.

Shark Detection and Alarm System – Tiger Lily Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Shark Exclusion Net System – Tiger Lily Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Used together these systems will protect the bathers. And the marine animals. And only when and where they are needed. There is no need to be killing marine wildlife tonight.

While we are all sleeping?!

Affiliated websites

https://umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the river
https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za – sardine run coming up
https://thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine
https://masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down
https://brucifire.co.za – surf and conditions reporting
https://fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there

Affiliated YouTube Channels

https://youtube.com/@mydotackletalk – highly technical sport fishing

https://youtube.com/@thesardinenews – neva miss out

https://youtube.com/@waterwoes – complain here

https://youtube.com/@Brucifire – entertaining surf reporting

https://youtube.com/@surflaunchingsouthernafrica – getting out there

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Umhlanga Spearfishing Club 7th Annual Crayfish Compo 25 March 2017

Umhlanga Spearfishing Club 7th Annual Crayfish Compo 25 March 2017

Mark it in your diaries, it’s coming right up…the Umhlanga Spearfishing Club 7th Annual Crayfish Compo 25 March 2017.

The fun compo is always great for a few good laughs and fun times seeing old friends at the weigh-in and prize-giving.

With a crayfish braai to beat the band too!

Sardine correspondent Jason Heyne will be there to report…live from the event…

Over to you Jason 😉

 

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South Africa’s best surfers head for Vic Bay

South Africa’s Best Surfers head for Vic Bay Ready For Final Leg of Quiksilver Takes One To Know One Series

Beyrick deVries as shot by Luke Patterson, surfing Umhlanga area.

Victoria Bay, Southern Cape – South Africa’s best open men and junior surfers will soon be making their way to Victoria Bay in the Southern Cape to compete in the final leg of the Quiksilver Takes One To Know One series. The event is the third of a three-part series and will take place on the 20th and 21st of September at the popular and picturesque point break setting of Victoria Bay. The event is a 3A Surfing South Africa Pro Surf Tour event that offers R30 000 in prize money.

With two of the three events already completed at Long Beach, Cape Town and Umdloti, KZN, the final stage in Victoria Bay is set to attract some top level competitive surfing. David Van Zyl of Durban North put on an impressive performance in Cape Town to take out his first open mens victory while Beyrick De Vries of Umhlanga Rocks stole the show in Umdloti and was crowned the KZN north coast champion. Both Van Zyl and De Vries won’t have it all their own way in Victoria Bay with the likes of Slade Prestwich (Durban), Michael February (Kommetjie), Dylan Lightfoot (Jeffreys Bay) and Dan Redman (Durban North) looking to impress and take home some silverware. De Vries has been focussed on the ASP Prime Tour and believes that the event will be a nice breather in between his hectic international schedule;  he said, “I can’t wait to get to Vic Bay, have a few heats with the boys and just have a good time down there. The local guys have been surfing really well and I can’t wait to battle it out in some fun waves on the point.”

In the U20 junior division Diran Zakarian of Melkbosstrand will be keen to repeat his previous result in Umdloti where he performed a series of radical manoeuvres to win the junior division final. He will be up against rivals Slade Prestwich (Durban North), Jarred Veldhuis (Kommetjie), Shane Sykes (Salt Rock) and Matthew McGillivray (Jeffreys Bay).

The series has offered a total of R90 000 in prize money as well as some incredible prizes from sponsors DRIFT CAMERA’S, TECHNIBLOCK SUNSCREEN, SCULLCANDY HEADPHONES, ZIGZAG SURFING MAGAZINE and RED BULL.

Quiksilver’s Marketing and Sales Manager Dane Patterson has been very happy with the series and looks forward to the final event in Victoria Bay, saying, “We have seen a really good response from the surf community, the series has been welcomed with open arms. It is the perfect platform for South African surfers to gain a competitive edge and it’s a good stepping stone to bigger things. Let’s hope that the surf delivers for the final event.”

To find out more about the series visit the event mini-site at http://www.quiksilver.co.za/totko/. Surfers wanting to take part can visit http://www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za to enter.

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Great White killed at Sunwich Port

Great White Shark Tracking Project

Great White Tracking Project
Great White Tracking Project

In a wierd twist within the Osearch Shark Tracking story we started to follow last week, one of the tagged Great White Sharks was caught and killed by the Natal Sharks Board at none other than our favourite surfing beach – Sunwich Port, down here on the south coast of Kwazulu Natal!
The beautiful fish weighed 300 odd kilograms and was taken to the NSB headquarters in Umhlanga for analysis and whatever else they do to the carcasses there.
The shark took a drum line bait and must have died a horrible and gruesome death…much like a snared wild animal poached in a game reserve.
The Natal Sharks Board have systematically decimated the local shark population of Zambezi, Tiger and other sharks here on the KZN south coast and unfortunately, pelagic sharks like Great Whites also fall prey to their killing methods.
Drum lines are a move towards lessening their indiscriminate impact on the environment…but gill nets are still deployed up and down the beautiful Kwazulu Natal South Coast. These gill nets have been killing dolphins, turtles, rays, sharks (lethal and non-lethal) and other forms of marine life like whales for the better part of half a century now.
A bureaucratic organization – funded by municipalities and the tax payer…the Natal Sharks Board and it’s staff and management can be credited with the most cruel ocean animal killings imaginable.
All to protect the tourist dollar as inland punters flock to the Kwazulu Natal coastline each school holiday.
The shark nets do not cordon off a beach from sharks at all – many, if not most sharks are caught on their way back out to sea…on the inside side of the nets. What the nets and drum lines do is reduce the local population of lethal sharks in an area…seriously unbalancing the ecology in that immediate area.
Twisting the story even further…another shark attack was recorded at Port St Johns, down the coast in the Transkei. Port St. Johns has the highest incidence of shark attacks in the world.
Solutions? Many solutions to the shark attack problem are available. Shark spotters are deployed in the clear waters of the Cape…sonar has been proposed to the NSB as a monitoring system in dirtier waters of KZN, but was ignored completely…
Observation and avoidance using technology would far outweigh simple killing and eradication.

Check out the Osearch project here…https://thesardine.co.za/?p=1153

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Tracking Great Whites

Great White Shark Tracking Project

Great White Tracking Project
Great White Tracking Project

For a fantastically eery experience, log onto Ocean Global Shark Tracker and see what a few Great Whites are doing right now. As of yesterday, Maddox, a 2000lb monster, was casually heading into the Maputo Bay area. Brenda Fassie and Louise were cruising the coast just south of Inhambane, a bunch of whites are swimming about in Zululand…and for those of you living and swimming in the Cape – wow! An amazing concentration of sharks hang out in the Southern Cape waters…check it out…!

Another success story is about a shark called Success, a 3500 pounder – he swam across from deep Cape Town to past Maputo and across to Madagascar in 6 weeks!

http://sharks-ocearch.verite.com/

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