20 MPAs declared!
Jubilation as minister signs 20 Marine Protected Areas into being in terms of section 22A of the NEMA Protected Areas Act. Hope for South Africa’s last wilderness is restored. This has been a hard fought battle by Dr Kerry Sink and her team, Tamsyn Livingstone, Prof Colin Attwood, Dr. Amanda Lombard, Dr. Jean Harris, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, SANParks, SANBI, DEA, Wildoceans, Y4MPAs and the many support organisations throughout the country.
Unless sustainably managed, the uses and users of marine ecosystems can threaten, change and destroy the very processes and ‘resources’ upon which they depend. MPAs create safe zones of ‘samples’ of biodiversity and associated ecosystems, sites for reproduction and growth of species, provide ‘spill-over addition’ into adjacent areas, points of education, serve as baseline sites for scientific study and the list goes on of all the benefits MPA’s offer us and oceans.
It is our role as South Africans to ensure that these zones remain protected as the ocean bio-web comes under more and more pressure from overfishing, oil and gas exploration, shipping noise and pollution.
Links to all declarations can be found here:
Oceans Not Oil 
What fish is this ? It looks a bit like a Coelacanth.
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Hi Jacqui, Yes it is – a Western Indian Ocean one. These are the beauties that live in the canyons close to where they intend drilling for oil and gas on the KZN coast. These canyons are steep and not particularly stable. One of the many reasons ONO is fighting this development so hard.
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Where can one find the details of the new MPAs?
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Hi Mike,
You can find a good link here :https://www.marineprotectedareas.org.za/explore
Let us know if you’d like to receive newsletters etc from Oceans Not Oil and we’ll add you to our contacts.
Thanks for your interest,
Janet
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What a lot of Bullshit now the Chinese have a “free for all” to all our marine resources. And don’t tell me your Maritime will patrol and control as you can’t even do that now. Just look along Eastern Cape how those Chinese trawlers are raping the ocean at night. I believe in protecting our resources but what impact studies have been conducted regarding the negative impact of tourism to the identified Areas. Another example of someone trying to make his/her mark in this world with absolutely no clue. We will talk again in 5 years when our Tuna stocks have been depleted our reefs scoured out by the Chinese nets being dragged over them.
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Hi Mark,
A very passionate and expert group of scientists worked extremely hard for the better part of a decade to get these MPA’s approved and declared. Why? Because they believe that ring-fencing significant parts of the ocean is tremendously important for the continued well being of many species and bio-webs.
We at Oceans Not Oil believe in active citizenry. If you feel strongly about the need for ocean patrols then motivate for them with your local councillor and with government. You will certainly have our backing.
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