Wow, what a week it has been!
Unfortunately, because of the mayhem and destruction of property, beaches from Durban right up to KwaDukuza’s end have been closed and this means no fishing. The reason being that water used to douse the fire engulfing the chemical factory at Cornubia became contaminated with chemicals and entered the Umhlanga River, inevitably entering the ocean. The current carried the contaminated water northward, killing all marine and some bird life on it’s journey of destruction.
People have been asked not to consume the dead fish, crayfish and other marine life along the coast owing to risk of severe poisoning. I would think that it will be some time before the ocean water becomes safe again, and marine life returns. But in the meantime, authorities are doing their best to prevent any more polluted water from entering the sea.
All the life in the Umhlanga river has been killed as well, plus the birds that feed on the fish and other organisms in the river. It is a total disaster, plus now because most of the food outlets have been looted and destroyed, people at the weekend were contacting me and asking for help in donating food and giving money as they were hungry and had nothing at home. I explained on Saturday morning that I had visited a number of ATMs only to find that there was no cash.
Fortunately, there were still shoals of sardines moving up the South Coast, and the netters were in action again on Friday morning after refraining from netting during the week because of the danger attached. Nets that were hailed ashore contained some excellent hauls of sardines, and netters said that fish would be distributed free to residents.
They continued netting throughout the weekend. This was a tremendous effort on the part of the netters, as it is quite an expensive exercise netting sardines, plus there was a shortage of fuel as well.
During the week I saw pockets of sardines heading north on a number of occasions but, beaches were deserted because of the looting and destruction of buildings. Surf angling was quiet anyway, with just a few small shad during the early morning periods.
Unfortunately, it could be some time before rock and surf anglers will be able to fish the rocks and beaches south of Tongaat again. Sardines were spotted just off the tidal pool at Umdloti on Saturday, and no doubt more shoals will be spotted between Umdloti and Ballito, but it is not advisable to collect fish caught anywhere in this area.
