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Fish Farms – WESSA Right of Reply

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Editor: This letter From WESSA Algoa Bay Branch Chairperson, Gary Koekemoer, is in response to comments made by the editor in this article – So, Allow the Cynic in me to comment on Round Umpteen of the Proposed Fish Farm.

Dear MyPE

Right of reply:

Do we live in a polarised city? Does a north-south, rich-poor, black-white polarisation impact the “sustainable development” evaluation of fish farms (as part of the broader Aquaculture Development Zone – ADZ – application being undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – DAFF) and how the public should respond? It’s an important question.

If you refer to the minutes of the public meeting you attended, you will note that this issue was raised by ourselves (WESSA Algoa Bay branch) and the suggestion for two meetings as a minimum was proposed again by ourselves at the meeting and followed up in correspondence with Anchor Environmental (the environmental assessment practitioner – EAP).

Why are two meetings necessary?

Public participation is a critical component of environmental assessment processes. Typically two challenges arise, getting people impacted involved and wading through the reams of paper (over 600 pages at that point) to understand what’s being applied for and the risks involved. The ADZ identifies three sites: Algoa 1 (off our southern beaches), Algoa 6 (north of PE harbour) and Algoa 7 (off our northern beaches, close to St Croix Island). It’s a critical point to remember.

On Friday 19 July, the EAP officially launched the ADZ process on behalf of DAFF. The draft application is significantly different to the preliminary one shared at the Town Hall meeting you attended. The application now excludes fish cages for the southern beaches site (Algoa 1), reduces the site size significantly and proposes instead bivalve (mussels and oysters) farming. Why? Because close on 180 organisations and persons wrote into the EAP expressing their concerns. Because over 3 000 persons have signed an online petition – no to fish farms, yes to rehabilitating (restoring) the Swartkops Estuary. Because on Saturday 13 July over 2 000 open-water and surf users gathered on Hobie Beach for a protest-celebration against fish farms and in celebration of Algoa Bay being our Table Mountain. In face of that opposition DAFF had to acknowledge they hadn’t done the homework they had agreed to, that the perceived risk of shark attacks couldn’t be mitigated and that the potential impact on tourism would be devastating. That’s the power of involving the local community. We want more people to use our beaches, surf and open-waters, not less.

However, Fish farms are still proposed for the northern site. That potentially will not only devastate the African Penguin colony on St Croix, but will affect beach and surf use of St Georges Strand, Wells Estate, Bluewater Bay and New Brighton beaches. The local community in this instance is the neighbourhoods of Bluewater Bay, Wells Estate, Motherwell and New Brighton/Kwazakhele. How best to reach that community? Meet with them at an accessible venue. Mobilise community structures beforehand. Get people to register as I&AP’s and submit their concerns in writing. This cannot happen if people have to travel 20 to 30km’s at night to a venue in areas they are unfamiliar with. If you accept that principle for the northern beaches communities, the same principle must apply for the southern beaches? By comparison the process for considering a nuclear plant at Thyspunt involved public meetings at 5 different venues in close proximity and a meeting at Nongoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton.

Your concerns about polarisation are an important consideration. But your critique is informed by attending one meeting. It ignores the fact that the southern beaches and adjacent communities are now multi-racial – come down to Hobie Beach on any given Sunday, check the StatsSA demographic data for Ward 2; that the ADZ impacts both south and north beaches, that for geographic reasons open-water use mainly happens off the southern beaches, and that the practical considerations of getting local persons involved means setting up meetings in close proximity to impacted communities. It also ignores the counter proposal that is centred on restoring the Swartkops Estuary, an initiative that will bring jobs and improved well-being to the communities that need it most.

We do indeed live in a segregated city, which is increasingly segregating on economic rather than racial lines, but the reality is that fish farms (not bivalves) will cost the city jobs and negatively impact the entire Bay’s ecosystem, a natural asset that impacts all the Bay’s citizens and requires the attention and input of everyone who calls our Bay home.

Gary Koekemoer
WESSA Algoa Bay Branch Chairperson

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.