AFRICA
Our Home LIVING BY THE OCEAN Revised Edition
LIVING BY THE OCEAN
THIRTY THREE COUNTRIES IN AFRICA ARE COASTAL AND TOGETHER HAVE A COASTLINE 18,950 MILES LONG On our blue planet it can seem as though the bounty of the oceans is endless. The surface of planet Earth is two thirds salt water. Just like on land, however, the distribution of life is uneven. Most of the sea creatures live close to the shore, while the vast ocean floors can be quite deserted, being home to far fewer, specialist creatures able to survive in the deep dark depths. Many of Africa’s people make their living from the sea. The seas of course provide fish and other food stuffs such as seaweed. We travel between countries on the back of the sea. We use its products for building and for spiritual and aesthetic contentment. Humans are drawn to the sea. Wherever you go in the world, the coast is the most popular habitat. People love to be beside the seaside. Perhaps because of the many fruits it has to offer, or because the rhythmic pounding of the waves, reminding us of the rhythm of our hearts.
148 | Living By The Ocean
149
WILDLIFE WONDERS OF THE SEA
The sea is home to many creatures, great and small. They live in habitats equally varied, from sun-drenched coral reefs to midnight-dark deep ocean trenches. Ironically, many of the largest of these creatures, the whales (last in our spiral) are filter feeders, relying for their dinner on the tiniest krill, (in the centre of our spiral). The humpback whale pictured here eats them by sieving the water with very sophisticated mouthparts called baleen, very different to our teeth. Biologists now understand that these whales may have evolved from creatures like hippos and elephants which went back to the water. Plankton are microscopic plants and animals. They float in the water, rising as the water warms and sinking as it cools, running with tides and ocean currents. Phytoplankton are plants and so photosynthesise, deriving their energy from the sun (this process is described in Chapter 4). Zooplankton are animals, often the babies of bigger creatures such as crabs and fish. Some are herbivores – eating phytoplankton – some eat other zooplankton, and some eat whatever bits and pieces of waste and dead material they find whirling around in the soup of the sea. Many very complex food chains form in the sea, as sharks eat seals, seals eat fish, big fish eat smaller fish, small fish eat plankton and so on. Plankton underpins them all. All sea food webs begin with this wondrous soup. Humans exploit many parts of the food chains of the oceans. The crucial task is to ensure that we do so in ways that allow them to continue to work.
150 | Living By The Ocean
ACTION SHEETS - 70: Sustainable use of Marine Resources
151
THE SEA IS ONE
152 | Living By The Ocean
The sea, like the rest of the planet, is one whole rather than many small parts. Nothing can be done to part of the sea without consequences for the whole. Good consequences include those from a marine reserve, set up by villagers to improve their fish yields. Within the reserve, all fish are protected. None are caught. They thrive, have many young, and these swim out of the reserve and into the nets of surrounding villagers. Those that stay inside the reserve are always safe and provide a reservoir of reproducing fish. Reserves like this have been set up in Bazaruto in Mozambique, and in Mafia Island in Tanzania. On the other hand, a factory polluting the water around it can have negative effects, perhaps causing the death of fish miles away. If the factory does not join in with efforts to help protect the fish, they may not succeed. Though immense the marine environment is fragile. Each ecosystem functions in a particular and sensitive way. Coral reefs for example are home to so many different creatures they have been described as underwater rainforests. The brightly coloured fish talk to each other with sign language, using their colours and movements to signify moods and intentions. Corals (Scleractinia) are made up of a hard skeleton housing many tiny animals known as polyps. These polyps feed on zooplankton. Tiny symbiotic algae also live inside the coral tissue. These help the coral to form. They can only grow however, if enough light reaches them. Sediment from soil erosion, described in Chapter 3, washes into the sea and spreads out. Light cannot pass through soily seas, so the coral reefs die. Understanding and protecting coral is a crucial part of marine conservation.
153
MANGROVES
Coastal animals live life on the edge. They straddle two worlds, They need clever strategies to cope with being smothered each day, twice a day, with salt water and then uncovered and exposed to the sunlight. Mangrove forests are just such an ecosystem. Living on the edge of the sea and land, they protect coastal villagers from the worst of sea storms, by acting as a wind and wave break. Mangrove trees are very special. They have evolved unique ways of protecting their cells when the sea tides come in. Sea water is salty because it has natural chemicals dissolved in it – sodium chloride (salt) and other minerals. The tree needs to keep fresh water inside its cells, while keeping the salt water out. Most mangroves have thick skin and heavy waxy cuticles on their leaves which stops the fresh water inside, vital for all life, from evaporating.
154 | Living By The Ocean
The roots bring air to the plant through special cells called pneumatophores. Mangroves suffer when soil from the land runs down and buries their aerial roots. Monkeys, crabs, birds, and fish all live in mangrove forests. They are nurseries for young fish and shellfish, which travel out into the open seas as larvae or adults. Mangrove wood is hard-wearing and resistant to termites. It can be used for canoes, furniture and houses. Mangrove trees are easy to plant, and destroyed forests are now being restored all along the coast. Plant or protect a mangrove today! Like all forests, they are worth more to us alive.
155
FISHING
Until around 10,000 years ago, humans derived most of their animal food from hunting. As the hunter-gatherer lifestyle gave way to agriculture, more and more of the land animals we eat were farmed instead of hunted, but all over the world, people continued to hunt sea fish. Chapter 1 described how people, being so skilled at hunting, so organised and so determined, have hunted many types of animals to extinction. When a species goes extinct there are none left. One of the main problems for fishermen is to ensure that they do not cause the loss of their very livelihood, and of these crucial foodstuffs, by hunting too many fish. The way the fish are caught can be the cause of other problems. Trawling involves towing heavy fishing gear over the seabed fast to collect up the sea animals. The doors can weigh several tonnes and create furrows when dragged. Depending on the configuration, the footrope may turn over large rocks or boulders. Sessile animals are those that live on the sea bed, not moving, like corals. Trawling destroys them, including the little-known cold-water corals like Goniocorella, found in deep water off the shores of South Africa and Madrepora, off the Cape Verde Islands of West Africa. Cold water corals provide a home to many deep-sea animals – crustaceans, fish, sea urchins and brittle stars.
BAD FISHING?
Trawling for shrimps has high levels of bycatch – all sorts of animals and fish are caught by mistake alongside the shrimp.
156 | Living By The Ocean
157
POLLUTION
As the sea is so immense, it can seem like a useful bin for all the huge amount of waste produced by humankind, but this is woefully not true. The earth was once free of damaging chemicals and oil, plastic rubbish and other pollution. As humans have developed more and more industry over the last two hundred years, we are responsible for more and more damaging discharges and products. As with rivers and lakes, the sea can seem a convenient place for businesses to get rid of their toxic waste materials. Bioaccumulation is a scary process whereby toxins pass up the food chain in ever-greater concentrations. A single shellfish on a rock beside a polluting factory may eat only a small amount of heavy metal. Then an otter eats 30 shellfish a day. A killer whale eats many otters. All the heavy metal in all the shellfish eaten by all those otters ends up inside the body of the whale! A female whale can pass these pollutants to their young in the milk. The tastiest fish have grown fat on the flesh of many smaller fish. We are the top of many a food chain, and so are at risk from accumulated toxins too.
Pollution from the land All rivers flow to the sea. Waste from human activities on land far away from the sea can travel to damage the marine environment. Pesticides and fertilisers added to farmland run off the land and down rivers, ending up in the sea. Oil enters the sea by running off roads. Eutrophication – described on page 51 – can occur when sewage (human waste) or chemical fertilisers from soil enter the sea. If too many people use the beach as a toilet, the sea cannot cope with the additional waste; it becomes dirty. New traditions must emerge to suit the new situation.
DID YOU KNOW? • The world’s oceans contain more than five trillion pieces of plastic pollution. • Eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year. • The vast majority, 80% of this, comes from the land. • The Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and Europe has 1,011 bits of plastic per acre - 3,000 tonnes of plastic floating in the Mediterranean Sea.
158 | Living By The Ocean
Plastic in the Sea Something is said to be biodegradable when it can be broken down into harmless products by the processes of nature. An unpainted wooden boat, or unprinted paper bag would be considered biodegradable. A biscuit wrapper, coloured with artificial dyes, and made of plastic, or fishing net made of nylon, is not. Rubbish can end up in the sea. Plastic bags and other ‘non-biodegradable’ objects can get tangled in the feet of birds, or wrapped around the necks of sea creatures like seals. These animals die a miserable death. Wildlfe at sea – birds, fish, turtles, dolphins, whales – often mistake plastic for food, their stomachs fill with plastic and they starve to death.
Bycatch Bycatch refers to the fish and other sea creatures which are caught by accident. Very often these creatures are simply thrown back into the sea dead or dying – another tragedy of fishing practices. These may be species which are valuable, but not to the fisherman who has caught them. What a terrible waste of fish.
159
IT’S A NUMBERS GAME
Fishing is a numbers game. Fish need to be able to reproduce themselves at least as fast as they are taken out of the water. If not: NO FISH! Put simply, if enough fish are left behind to allow the fish to recover their numbers, fishing is said to be SUSTAINABLE. Here two fish meet, mate and reproduce. Their young, called fry, are caught by other fish and by humans. Fish usually have lots of fry so that enough survive to the next generation. However, fish did not count on modern technology. It takes millions of years of evolution to develop food chains and ecological balance. In just a few tens of years industrial humanity, with huge nets, massive fishing boats, and modern fish-finding techniques have totally altered the marine environment. The human predator is just too effective. Fish have no time to catch up. Once upon a time, it was said: ‘If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime’.
160 | Living By The Ocean
This is no longer true. Fish stocks (i.e. the numbers of fish in the sea) are running out. The reasons are two fold. 1. Firstly, there are now far more people than ever before - 7.8 billion people in fact. Seven billion is seven thousand thousand thousand. So the total is 7,800,000,000 (2021). It is difficult to describe in words how many people that is. Needless to say, it is a lot, and the number of people is increasing all the time. More people means more need for fish. Not only that, but with international transport of foodstuffs, people all over the world are eating more fish. 2. Technology has also increased our ability to catch fish. Very often, traditional fishing practices, using nets or hooks, are sustainable. Modern fishing by big companies involves using nets as long as 133 elephants! Lines are placed in the water one hundred kilometres long. It would take a man a day and half of non-stop walking to reach the end of this line.
Big factory ships travel all over the world fishing in different waters, chasing the same fish. Because no one owns the fish, they suffer from something known in economics as ‘THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS’. A common resource is shared by many people. No one person or family are responsible for it; it does not belong to any one in particular. This can be a very good thing as many people get to share in it. However, common resources suffer from over-exploitation. This is because people feel that if they do not take as much as they can, someone else will. There is no point being careful or planning for the long term because tomorrow there will be none left. This is of course especially true when people come from other countries to fish in foreign waters. Tragedy of the commons can be changed into delight of the commons if people share well.
161
MANY WAYS OF CATCHING FISH ARE HARMFUL
This man is dynamite fishing. Explosives are placed into the water which explode and stun the fish. Many fish die. Those that don’t are easily caught for sale, some packed into boxes to be sold as aquarium fish, swimming in little tanks in people’s houses. On their journey from the sea to the houses, tens of fish may die for every one that survives. They do not adjust well to life away from the coral reef.
162 | Living By The Ocean
Cyanide fishing is another very harmful practice. Scuba diving with spear guns is better because one fish is killed at a time, and all are used. However, those doing it must be careful not to damage coral under their flippers and again, too many spear fishermen, can kill too many fish. Beach seine nets, which are thrown over coral and dragged along, also destroy the seafloor.
163
COMMON RESOURCES NEED COOPERATION TO CARE FOR THEM
164 | Living By The Ocean
The only way the sea can be protected is through cooperation. Here a group of people are gathered together talking about how to manage their coastline. Fishermen, tour operators, councillors, and conservationists are all involved. In Mafia island, Tanzania, the resources which all of these diverse people want to preserve were being destroyed. Dynamite fishing, uncontrolled harvesting of mangroves, and too many beach seine nets were ruining the sea’s riches. After many meetings, the government and the villagers signed a resolution to create a marine park. At the heart of the park, absolutely no fishing and tourist diving are allowed. In other areas, fishing is allowed but beach seine nets are totally banned. Most fishermen have now swapped their beach seine nets for more sustainable fishing gear. Fishermen were worried about catching enough fish and making enough money when the new resource use rules took effect. To help them, the marine park committee organised interest-free loans for new businesses, like seaweed farming and eco-tourism. It takes time for changes to take effect, but there are already good signs: fish are getting bigger – blackspot snapper are more than a third longer than those outside the park. On one reef in the park, diving surveys now find three times as many butterfly fish, which shows that the coral is recovering.
ACTION SHEETS - 71: Marine Protected Areas
165
TREASURE
How can we children combat the damage to this most precious resource? Gaze at the sea. It is a huge jewel of great beauty, laden with gifts of great practical value to humans. Think about every object you own. Be responsible for where it ends up. Never throw things into the sea. You can organise a beach clean up through your school or in your village, just as these people, pictured, have done. Perhaps some of the things you find will have a value. One women’s group in Kiunga Marine National Reserve, Kenya, is using discarded beach sandals to make necklaces which they sell. Perhaps the elders in your village can organise a community plan to agree on how the coast is looked after and used.
RETRAINING In this picture, a man has lost his hands while fishing with explosives. He has retrained, learned to speak a foreign language, and has become a guide for eco-tourists. His detailed knowledge of the coastal animals, learned from a lifetime of fishing, means he has much to explain to these visitors.
166 | Living By The Ocean
Local children enjoy a beach clean-up
Eco-tourism is an excellent way of using the coast sustainably. People will travel from thousands of miles away, paying hundreds of dollars to see the creatures which live in Africa’s seas. Spectacular animals such as humpback whales and whale sharks are especially interesting, but turtles and reef fish and birds are all attractive and wonderful too. To make it truly work for you and for the environment, every aspect of the tourism, from the activities of the tourists, what they eat and where they stay needs to be considered. Eco-tourism should put more back than it takes out. The environment must be undamaged, and local people should benefit. Far too often tourism has negative effects on local culture and the environment and all the money earned stays in the hands of few large, often foreign companies. Conservation tourism is when people pay to stay in an area and help with conservation work. They may clean beaches, plant trees, collect data for researchers, even make films. It is a succesful way to bring money to communities, share understanding and protect our natural heritage.
167
LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Selling shells can seem like an innocent way of making money. It is not just you and your friends who take the shells though. Imagine thousands and thousands of people all along the coast picking up seashells, or even worse, taking live sea snails out of the sea. Together it is possible to remove so many sea snails that the sea environment is changed and damaged. Sea animals have a particular role in the ecosystem, some grazing on algae, others as predators, and many acting as the ocean’s waste disposal system, eating dead matter. Without the grazers, algae may grow out of control, stopping other creatures from living. It is far better to plan your use of marine animals and keep track of their numbers over many years. Take only those you know to be surplus.
Keystone species A keystone species is like a keystone in a building. All the other stones depend on that one being there and being strong, or the building may fall down. The giant triton snail (Charonia tritonis) feeds on the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci). This starfish eats coral. When the triton are overfished, the starfish goes out of control and kills off the coral, home to many other creatures.
168 | Living By The Ocean
Sharing sensibly Fish are a common resource and need common agreements to care for them. Clever ways to protect fish involve setting up marine reserves, and having closed seasons. ‘Closed seasons’ are times when fish are not taken from the sea at all. Another way to look after the fish is to have nets which allow the young fish to escape. Only adult fish are caught, which allows them to breed before being killed. This allows the fish population to recover and increase its numbers. If the fish you catch are preserved, by smoking, salting them, or if you have the facilities, by freezing, less are wasted and they may be more valuable when sold. Governments and regional councils must take responsibility for trying to stop foreign boats from fishing in sovereign waters. Can you think of other clever ways to stop wasting fish?
169
LIVING BY THE OCEAN ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY 1 Read the extract on the following pages with the class, perform it as a play, or hold a classroom debate based on the story. End with a vote about the Qolorha-by-Sea coastal development plans. Do you agree with Lefa Leballo or Camagu? Abridged excerpt from The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda, published by Oxford University Press Southern Africa
Alternative Visions of Coastal Development In The Heart of Redness, a novel by South African author Zakes Mda, the chief of Qolorha-by-Sea has called a meeting where the villages are to find out more about plans to develop the coast where they live into a luxurious holiday resort. After introductions from the chief, the developers begin to demonstrate their grand plans for the village. Mr Smith talks of the wonders that will happen at Qolorha-by-Sea. There will be boats and waterskiing and jet-skiing. People from across the seas will ride the waves in a sport called surfing. There will be merry-go-rounds for the children, and rides that twist and turn while the riders scream in ecstatic fright. “This will be the place for roller coaster enthusiasts who spend their lives travelling the world in search of the biggest and most daring rides,” he says. Bhonco and his supporters applaud. None of them have seen a roller coaster before. But it does not matter. If it is something that brings civilisation, then it is good for Qolorha. But Camagu is not impressed. “You talk of all these rides and all these wonderful things,” he says, “but for whose benefit are they? What will these villagers who are sitting here get from all these things? Will their children ride on the merry-go-rounds and roller-coasters? Of course not! They will not have any money to pay for these things. These things will be enjoyed only by rich people who will come here and pollute our rivers and our ocean.”
170 | Living By The Ocean
Who’s Who in Qolorha-by-Sea Mr Smith: A business consultant Bhonco and Zim: Elders of the village, and sworn enemies Camagu: A middle-aged university graduate, recently arrived from the city, where he has been unable to find a job Lefa Leballo: The chief executive of the company planning to develop the coast “Who are you to talk for the people of Qolorha?” asks Bhonco. “You talk of our rivers and our ocean. Since when do you belong here? “Hey you, Bhonco!” shouts Zim. “Today this Camagu is talking a lot of sense. He is right. They will destroy our trees and the plants of our forefathers for nothing. We, the people of Qolorha, will not gain anything from this.” “You will get jobs,” says Lefa Leballo desperately. Then he looks at Camagu pleadingly. “Please don’t talk these people against a project of such national importance.” “It is of national importance only to your company and shareholders, not to these people!” yells Camagu. “Jobs? Bah! They will lose more than they will gain from jobs. I tell you, people of Qolorha, these visitors are interested only in profits for their company. This sea will no longer belong to you. You will have to pay to use it.”
171
Camagu’s Vision “You have nothing to offer these people,” says Mr Smith to Camagu. “If you fight against these wonderful developments, what do you have to offer in their place?” “The promotion of the kind of tourists that will benefit the people, that will not destroy indigenous forests, that will not bring hordes of people who will pollute the rivers and drive away the birds.” “That is just a dream,” shouts Lefa Leballo. “There is no such tourism.” “We can work it out, people of Qolorha,” appeals Camagu. “We can sit down and plan it. There are many people out there who enjoy communing with unspoiled nature.”
Camagu’s Ideas “The villagers should come together, and using the natural material that is found here, the very materials that they use to build their own houses, they can build a back-packers hostel. There are many tourists who like to admire the beauty of nature and watch birds without killing them. "Such tourists would enjoy the villager’s hospitality. Shellfish and umngqusho (maize with beans), cooked in the unique manner of the people of Qolorha, would be prepared for the guests.
172 | Living By The Ocean
"Come to think of it, we can even create our own electricity! From the sun! There is plenty of sunshine here! We can harness the sun to light our hostel and our houses! We can even cook and warm our water with the sun! These are not just dreams. Such things are already happening in other places". "If the villagers come together to build this holiday place that gives travellers an opportunity to experience life in an African home, they will not be working for anyone but themselves. It will not be big and wonderful like the gambling city with roller coasters and cable cars. But it will be ours. The Chinese have a saying that it is better to be the head of a chicken than the backside of an elephant". At the end of the meeting, Lefa Leballo says adamantly, “We are going ahead with our plans. The government has already approved this project. How will you stop progress and development?” For a while, Camagu does not know how to answer this. Then in an inspired moment, he suddenly shouts, “How will I stop you? I will tell you how I will stop you! I will have this village declared a national heritage site. Then no one will touch it….” After a long campaign, the village is declared a national heritage site, and the government issues a court order against the development of the coast as a major tourism resort and gambling city.
173