Protecting the ocean treasures of Stilbaai

Update

STILBAAI NEWS - National Marine Week was celebrated during the second week of October.

The aim of the annual celebration is threefold, namely to encourage all to use marine resources sustainably, to highlight the importance of keeping marine ecosystems healthy, as well as creating awareness about the importance of marine protected areas (MPAs). "These areas help protect marine and coastal habitats and allow vulnerable and threatened marine species to regenerate and recover, MPAs also offer income generation opportunities through sustainable fishing and tourism," said Loren Pavitt, Acting General Manager: Advocacy, CapeNature.

CapeNature manages six of these areas on behalf of the Department of Environmental Affairs: Oceans and Coast, including the one at Stilbaai.

This area, which was established in 2008, provides protection to a variety of marine and estuarine habitats, including a large sandy bay to the east, smaller rocky bays to the west and the entire Goukou estuary (river mouth).

It is one of the few such areas in South Africa that provides protection for both estuarine and marine habitats. It prohibits fishing and bait collection in about 75% of the Goukou Estauary and 20 sq km of ocean in the Skulpiesbaai restricted zone in the west, and the larger land-based Geelkrans restricted zone in the east. This contributes to the recovery of depleted fish populations and other endemic threatened species.

The area also has archaeologically and culturally important stone fish traps (visvywers) that provide living evidence of how the early original coastal communities fished the area.

This biodiverse area, with a variety of coastal habitats, including dunes, sandy beach, rocky shore, coastal fynbos, salt marshes, reefs and estuarine reeds, is monitored by CapeNature.

Objectives of this marine protected area

protect and conserve the coastal environment and marine living resources that are found in and around Stilbaai;
protect the reproductive capacity of exploited species of fish, including shellfish, to allow their populations to recover and to contribute to the replenishment of adjacent areas;
protect the nursery function of the Goukou estuary and the recruitment of estuarine-dependent fish into marine fisheries;
control other activities in the marine protected area to reduce the risks of habitat degradation and to preserve the visvywers;
to provide undisturbed sites for field-education, monitoring of resources and research into exploited species and their ecosystems.

Other marine protected areas in the Western Cape include Rocherpan, Betty's Bay, De Hoop, Robberg and Goukamma.

Treasures of Stilbaai. Photos: Juan du Plessis, CapeNature