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.
