December 2023 update by Frankie2Socks

Greetings aga

in from Frankie2Socks

It is late December 2023 and there weather, here in St.ucia KZN South Africa, is not playing fair, it is overcaste and threatening to rain, with a very strange wind that is blowing this way and that, then not blowing at all for awhile ,  not a nice pleasant wind at all. 

Last time I  Was at the beach before give bells this morning as usual, and just in time to catch the sunrise, but I did need to wait for the sun to peep through between some clouds, but that was   two days back.

When I last did the mouth walk thing, I walked all the way to the northern edge of the then along the growing point that wants to close the estuary by getting married to the western bank of the St. Lucia / Umfolozi River estuaries,     where the Umfolozi River estuary meets the sea going flow from the other four rivers that flow into the St. Lucia estuary systems.

Very strange things happen here, and these days sea sand is going into the upper edges of Lake St. Lucia's ocean connection. There are  four rivers here

1) Mzenene

2) Nyalazi

3) Mkuze

4) Hluhluwe

And they are all very tiny when compared to the Mighty Umfolozi River... The Mighty Umfolozi River is a very important part of the Zulu culture and mythologies. 

#Mapelane or as loosely translated into English Journeys end or the establishment that accepts your presence at the final destinations of your travels.

Come visit 

visit St. Lucia in North East KZN South Africa

Come visit St. Lucia and discover the many Jews and great tourism attractions in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Phone Petrus Viviers or the office staff at #4u2Stay on 0813427371

The 4u2stay team will help your holiday to find you. Tell them what you want to do when visiting St. Lucia. If you are not sure, just ask and the team will jump into a room and prepare an itinery for you. We understand that you have a budget, and want to do as many things S is possible in the short time that you are on leave or on holiday. If you have your own transport and want to do the #SelfDrive thing, that is fine by us, and we will find you the cheapest routes and self drive tracks within the nearby game reserves and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in North East Zululand, South Africa.

If you wanna go deal sea fishing you can book yourself and pay in advance here  these guys are one of the busier fishing charters in St. Lucia. While you are Staying in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and surrounding areas think about booking your holiday accomodations with the 4u2Stay team by phoning 0813427371 if out side South Africa change the front zero for +27 meaning you will the dial + (plus)  two Seven eight one three four two Seven three seven one or +27813427371  

December is here and now the fun starts

Greetings again from Frankie2Socks

It is Wednesday 29 November 2023 and the mouth to both the St. Lucia estuary and the Umfolozi River estuary, which were closed to the Indian Ocean due to a marine incident, when a ship called Jolly Rubino ran,  aground in 2002, just South of Mapelane, but about 1 kilometer North of the Cape St. Lucia light house, are currently still open to the sea. Let me say that again, "The mouths of the Umfolozi River and the lake St. Lucia estuary basin are both currently(November 2023) open to the ocean" 

So what does this mean ? 

Strange but very thought provoking question here. What are the ecological and environmental issues at stake due to the open / closed nature of the St Lucia estuary and the Umfolozi River? 

This is a rather large and open topic, and I will only cover a very few of the issues here. I have a FB page at facebook.com/4u2fish which expands and discussed some of these issues. One must remember that there is a rather large economic interest in the functioning of the lake, as in the past the local folks at Kuka village, Monzi, Mtubatuba, Nkunduse, Nyalzi and close by areas all had access to fishing rights and we're able to trade in fish, prawns, crabs and other marine delicasies.

These were all St threat due to the rather serious and nasty consiquenes of the chemicals on board the Jolly Rubino.  Firunately the South African Government took this threat if pollution seriously, and these were salvaged with great difficulty and theoss of life as well as one helicopter.

At that point in time when the Jolly Rubino sank in 2002, the mouths to both the Umfolozi estuary and the St. Lucia estuary were busy closing naturally due to an ongoing and persistent long term drought. This natural action of mouth clouse of estuaries is not properly understood, and very often abused and used for personal,  financial or party political gain. This politicization of these natural and environmental issues is nasty and very economically damaging to the St. Lucia region and surrounding areas of Umkhanyakude District municipality. 

The natural resources harvested (fish, prawns, crabs and other tasty treats) and sold by the locals forms a very big portion of the local economy of the Mtubatuba municipality, and St. Lucia tourism industry also contributes to this as well as the local forestery industry and commercial sectors. 

These natural resources have vanished from our estuaries due to the very bad and rather nasty past management strategies by the IWPA. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are the government appointed management team of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site. 

The IWPA is mandated to hold public participation process meetings for their ESTUARY MANAGEMENT PLANS  in a few different zones. The ICMA or Integrated Coastal Management Act dictates many different issues relating to estuaries and estuary management.