Coast KZN

The poaching of the resident parrot fish at Thompson’s Bay tidal pool on Saturday night has sparked widespread outrage. Glenda Thompson was infuriated when she made the gruesome discovery on Sunday morning.

“We arrived to see bait, hooks and pieces of these once beautiful, graceful creatures littered on the side of the pool,” said Thompson.

The incident has highlighted the plight of Ballito’s tidal pools, under attack from poachers operating indiscriminately along the Dolphin Coast in the absence of effective policing. While the seawater pools dotted along Ballito’s coast serve as sanctuaries for numerous sea creatures, which use the calm waters and the side walls and rocks for breeding and shelter, illegal poaching and fishing have increased substantially following the removal of Ezemvelo staff from the coast in 2016.

The decision not to renew Ezemvelo’s contract was taken by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) in spite of its good track record and years of experience. For close to 32 years, well-trained Ezemvelo officials were responsible for maintaining wildlife conservation areas and biodiversity in KZN.

Dolphin Coast conservancy chairman, Di Jones said she was appalled by the incident and said it was critical for the community to find effective ways of fighting the illegal poaching of sea life. She said parrot fish have been systematically disappearing from the tidal pools and some of the area’s once thriving tidal pools had become barren aquatic deserts, depleted of fish and live coral.

“This is no better than canned lion hunting – the poor fish do not stand a chance! Our marine life is under threat from poaching. While we realise that there are people who make a living from the sea, the wanton pillaging cannot be allowed to go unchecked,” said Jones.

Tidal Tao’s Duncan Pritchard, a local expert on marine conservation, said parrot fish were inactive at night.

“They wrap themselves in a mucus cocoon and sleep, so someone must have gone into the water and caught or speared them. You can literally touch them at night when they are sleeping,” he said.

Parrot fish eat algae and dead coral. These herbivores spend up to 90 percent of their day nibbling. They perform vital ecosystem services like grazing algae off coral. According to a National Geographic study, reefs where parrot fish were abundant in the 1980s are the reefs that are healthy today.

KDM marine safety manager Steve Honeysett said Thompson’s Bay, Chaka’s Rock and Salt Rock’s tidal pools were marine protected areas and no aquatic wildlife was allowed to be collected from them.

“Anyone caught poaching or collecting marine life from these tidal pools will be prosecuted,” he said.