From Chris "Airjaws" Fallows....
Yesterdays rains seem to have helped the fish side of the problem as last night and this morning the water was pushing strongly out of the vlei. Also Cassandra and her team were there again last night making sure nobody poached fish. Hopefully the fish that did survive have now left the vlei.
The big issues that have been highlighted by many people at various levels on this issue are.
1. The vleis low capacity to handle contamination primarily due to extremely high levels of siltation. The situation is so bad near the mouth that on a springtide only 20-30cm of water can flow over the various sandbanks. Roughly 15-18 years ago a large dredging effort deepened the area between the road bridge and 150m North of the foot bridge. Two years later and the difference to the vlei in terms of fish numbers was remarkable as the salt water intrusion on a spring tide could be visually seen well into the main vlei.
2. A improvement to the rubble weir and sewerage pipe at the mouth that currently do not allow any decent volume of water to flow into the vlei. Perhaps the pipe could be re routed along the contour of the road bridge instead of directly across the vlei and the weir could be changed from a static system to one that can be lifted on springtides ( many more knowledgeable and intelligent can surely come up with even better ideas) ?
3. A serious problem with compliance and enforcement. Despite a dedicated response over the past week by various enforcement groups fish still were poached and when this problem was at it's worst hundreds of leervis, kob , steenbras and bull nosed mullet were massacred with pitch forks, spearguns and foul hooked. I am not sure if any of the dozens doing this were even fined? Can a telephone number be given to the public that can be called in future as various concerned people were verbally assaulted and they risked physical assault when they tried to save fish and stop poachers, activities that enforcement officers should have been doing.
As Dalton correctly pointed out the vlei is at a crossroads and if immediate action is not taken we will have no productive estuarine system in False Bay and indeed right up to the Breede river. The vleis' ability to act as a shelter/reproductive/feeding area for various important fish species was clearly highlighted by virtue of the massive volume of fish that tried to escape this latest contamination. In addition to this many bird species, otters, water mongoose and other forms of wildlife is dependant on fish in this system.
As one of many concerned members of the public I can understand that these issues cannot be rectified without substantial finances. It is therefore hoped that the people at senior management levels tasked with managing this area take this latest incident as a means to highlight the plight of the current situation at these relevant funding levels and concrete steps are taken to rectify the situation.
In this regard it would be appreciated that concerned members of the public are informed what the outcome of the upcoming Zandvlei meeting is in terms of a plan going forward.
Thanks to all who made an effort to help in various ways with this latest event.
Chris
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