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With guano removal for fertiliser, overfishing, increased shipping traffic, noise and pollution, we've managed to ensure a 99% decline in endangered African penguins in just 100 years, but don't dare suggest that fisheries companies back off, writes Renée Bonorchis.
In the past month, there were quite a few consecutive wind-still days in Cape Town, with the sea like a lake. These conditions followed a typical summer, howling southeaster. The south easters, which rattle roofs and result in no one being able to give a hoot about how their hair looks, play an important part in nature – here on the west coast of SA, they push the warmer surface waters back from the shore, resulting in super cold, but very nutrient-rich upwellings from the Benguela current, which moves south to north along Africa's western flank.
These upwellings, which bring with them an abundance of plankton, attract fish and squid and all matter of marine life. They used to be the reason that big pelagic fish were found in large numbers in the region – yellowfin, hake, elf (shad). The past tense is necessary because overfishing of the sizeable pelagic fish has driven their populations further east to the geographic south coast (not the area south of Durban, but rather the likes of Cape Agulhas and De Hoop).
