South Africa has one of the most
sophisticated and extensive networks of
marine reserves on our planet home my
home like it took a home you know after
ten years on the road and I was gone
sometimes 300 days a year
I got a bit tired of not being home so
the next store that I proposed to
nationally gothic was actually a story
about my backyard I wanted to actually
tell the story about our network of
marine reserves marine birds normally
don’t feature all that much when we talk
about marine reserves however this is
what happens when they don’t feature in
management this is a picture that I took
on slide film in 2003 supply’s called
maahes island and i went back there for
the article last year and this is what i
found major decrease in nesting members
because even though this island is
protected the fishing grounds are not is
sardines and the answer is that these
birds eat are overfished so a lot of
these youngsters died on the nest it’s a
place called mercury Island in Namibia
and this is the centerpiece of the Namib
Island Marine Reserve and here for the
first time people are trying to connect
the nesting grounds and the feeding
grounds of these birds together
mercury island has a stable population
of Cape gannets you know Bank cormorants
the most endangered marine bird in
Africa a stable population only place
penguins African penguins they can’t fly
so what happens that they can only swim
a certain amount of distance before if
they have to go back and feed their
chicks so they’re the first ones to
Ganden and starve here these guys are
not starving are they
penguins heading out to sea you know
this looks like a really calm and
beautiful scene it’s you know sunny and
it’s just this sort of an idyllic place
and this is what it looks like when
you’re trying to take this picture water
is about five degrees and you’re in this
rock pool and you’re surrounded by
massive atlantic ocean waves and is my
assistant warning me there’s a big wave
coming so I swim away from the picture
trying to save myself
so I used to try to swim back again and
this goes on for hours and then he
misses the flipping wave here come the
Penguins I’m going what’s what’s going
you’re supposed to be there it’s a
little bit dangerous there because you
get washed out to sea you’re done so
there’s another wave coming I’m shooting
and again
anyway you know you know most Marine
Reserve South Africa where actually they
work great for biodiversity except they
were imposed on the local communities
and so even though you know they they
you know biologically and scientifically
they are amazing most local people do
not benefit from these reserves thus
there’s a high levels of poaching and
there’s actually a danger of these
reserves being opened up to fishing
because they serve no benefit to the
local people who live next to them and
in a developing country like South
Africa you kind of have to marry the
needs of biodiversity and people if you
want to have any chance of being
sustainable so so I was looking for a
few examples where people and
biodiversity coexisted together you know
happily this is Ponte on the Mozambique
South African border this is the only
National Park in Africa and here both
sides of the border are protected and
these dolphins spend half their lives in
Mozambique and half their life in South
Africa and now because of this new
arrangement of conservation they our
entire habitat is protected but the
reason I went there is because they have
a really interesting perspective on how
to integrate people into the marine
environment the Rangers instead of you
know doing anti-poaching patrols and
arresting people they built a school and
they’re teaching kids philosophy they
are as we first have to give the local
residents a benefit and the benefit is
education and this is a video of them
learning Portuguese they also hold an
immunization clinic and a nurse comes
out once a month the adults love this
service kids not so much this little guy
was not a happy chappie but again yeah
this is one of those great examples
where you know before enforcing
regulation they wanted to give the
community benefits further north and
Mozambique you know family Island again
an interesting case study where you have
a luxury resort in a fishing community
on one island and together they agree to
protect half of their coral reef from
all fishing and for the last ten years
and now the fishermen Reserve is so good
it’s actually exporting fish biomass
into the fishing zones on the outside
and now these guys are having better
catch than ever before so again you know
there are ways to marry biodiversity and
people and this is what has to happen in
south africa if these rumors ever gonna
have any open surviving over the next
five or ten years to end this evening i
want to kind of go back right to the
beginning this is one of my favorite
books as a child now under the red sea
by dr. Professor Hans Hass he was an
Austrian diving pioneer in biologists
and you know one of my biggest wishes as
a kid was to sort of you know be in one
of you know in the situations that he
found himself and you know putting this
presentation together I came across this
image when I went sheesh
I’ve already had those experiences so
you know full circle you know 12 years
later and thank you all so much for
coming
Oh
sophisticated and extensive networks of
marine reserves on our planet home my
home like it took a home you know after
ten years on the road and I was gone
sometimes 300 days a year
I got a bit tired of not being home so
the next store that I proposed to
nationally gothic was actually a story
about my backyard I wanted to actually
tell the story about our network of
marine reserves marine birds normally
don’t feature all that much when we talk
about marine reserves however this is
what happens when they don’t feature in
management this is a picture that I took
on slide film in 2003 supply’s called
maahes island and i went back there for
the article last year and this is what i
found major decrease in nesting members
because even though this island is
protected the fishing grounds are not is
sardines and the answer is that these
birds eat are overfished so a lot of
these youngsters died on the nest it’s a
place called mercury Island in Namibia
and this is the centerpiece of the Namib
Island Marine Reserve and here for the
first time people are trying to connect
the nesting grounds and the feeding
grounds of these birds together
mercury island has a stable population
of Cape gannets you know Bank cormorants
the most endangered marine bird in
Africa a stable population only place
penguins African penguins they can’t fly
so what happens that they can only swim
a certain amount of distance before if
they have to go back and feed their
chicks so they’re the first ones to
Ganden and starve here these guys are
not starving are they
penguins heading out to sea you know
this looks like a really calm and
beautiful scene it’s you know sunny and
it’s just this sort of an idyllic place
and this is what it looks like when
you’re trying to take this picture water
is about five degrees and you’re in this
rock pool and you’re surrounded by
massive atlantic ocean waves and is my
assistant warning me there’s a big wave
coming so I swim away from the picture
trying to save myself
so I used to try to swim back again and
this goes on for hours and then he
misses the flipping wave here come the
Penguins I’m going what’s what’s going
you’re supposed to be there it’s a
little bit dangerous there because you
get washed out to sea you’re done so
there’s another wave coming I’m shooting
and again
anyway you know you know most Marine
Reserve South Africa where actually they
work great for biodiversity except they
were imposed on the local communities
and so even though you know they they
you know biologically and scientifically
they are amazing most local people do
not benefit from these reserves thus
there’s a high levels of poaching and
there’s actually a danger of these
reserves being opened up to fishing
because they serve no benefit to the
local people who live next to them and
in a developing country like South
Africa you kind of have to marry the
needs of biodiversity and people if you
want to have any chance of being
sustainable so so I was looking for a
few examples where people and
biodiversity coexisted together you know
happily this is Ponte on the Mozambique
South African border this is the only
National Park in Africa and here both
sides of the border are protected and
these dolphins spend half their lives in
Mozambique and half their life in South
Africa and now because of this new
arrangement of conservation they our
entire habitat is protected but the
reason I went there is because they have
a really interesting perspective on how
to integrate people into the marine
environment the Rangers instead of you
know doing anti-poaching patrols and
arresting people they built a school and
they’re teaching kids philosophy they
are as we first have to give the local
residents a benefit and the benefit is
education and this is a video of them
learning Portuguese they also hold an
immunization clinic and a nurse comes
out once a month the adults love this
service kids not so much this little guy
was not a happy chappie but again yeah
this is one of those great examples
where you know before enforcing
regulation they wanted to give the
community benefits further north and
Mozambique you know family Island again
an interesting case study where you have
a luxury resort in a fishing community
on one island and together they agree to
protect half of their coral reef from
all fishing and for the last ten years
and now the fishermen Reserve is so good
it’s actually exporting fish biomass
into the fishing zones on the outside
and now these guys are having better
catch than ever before so again you know
there are ways to marry biodiversity and
people and this is what has to happen in
south africa if these rumors ever gonna
have any open surviving over the next
five or ten years to end this evening i
want to kind of go back right to the
beginning this is one of my favorite
books as a child now under the red sea
by dr. Professor Hans Hass he was an
Austrian diving pioneer in biologists
and you know one of my biggest wishes as
a kid was to sort of you know be in one
of you know in the situations that he
found himself and you know putting this
presentation together I came across this
image when I went sheesh
I’ve already had those experiences so
you know full circle you know 12 years
later and thank you all so much for
coming
Oh
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