Cape Town - The relationship between coastal towns and the people who depend on them for their livelihood is often tricky.
How does one begin to find a middle ground between residents who want an unspoilt view of the ocean from their homes, fishermen and tourism operators who depend on the ocean for their livelihood, and conservationists who want to ensure that the coastline functions optimally in order to serve everyone better?
This was the challenge faced by the City of Cape Town and local environmental organisation WWF-SA in one of the country’s biggest bays, False Bay.
The bay is one of Cape Town’s most popular attractions, not only for recreational activities such as surfing, swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving, but also as an important area for commercial and recreational fishing which has been happening at the bay for more than 300 years.
Eleanor Yeld-Hutchings, WWF-SA’s manager for the People and the Coast programme, says that over the years there has also been rapid urban growth, and more areas along the coastline have been identified for further growth.
She says eco-tourism – whale-watching, shark-cage diving and boat trips – is also gaining popularity.
“This ever-increasing use of the bay’s marine resources by a wide range of often competing users, has resulted in conflict and tension between the various stakeholder groups.
“Exploitation of the bay’s fish stocks, shark/human interactions, water quality and pollution in the bay, and safety and security along the coastline are just a small number of examples amongst many of the issues.”
During a recent 45-minute boat trip along the False Bay coastline, Yeld-Hutchings and Arne Purves, from Cape Town’s city environmental resource management department, introduced the “My False Bay” campaign, which is a response to these growing challenges.
The campaign focuses on bringing all the bay’s stakeholders together, and instilling in each of them a sense of pride about their association with and use of False Bay.
It also aims to grow the status of False Bay through messages from individuals on why the bay is special to them, and drawing attention to and emphasising all the work, research and energy that is already going into making it the iconic bay it is.
Yeld-Hutchings explains that WWF-SA and the City of Cape Town held several meetings with all the stakeholders – from the residents to the fishermen to businesses – and the common thread was that “False Bay is incredible and each had different reasons why they thought it was incredible”.
“So with the campaign we want to encourage people to tell us why they like False Bay, whatever it may be and we can put it together as a message.”
Some of the sightings during the boat trip included a seal feeding on an octopus, a scene we spotted only a few minutes after leaving the Simon’s Town harbour, the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach, and just before Cape Point, a small colony of Cape fur seals.
Kari Underhill, a marine biologist at the Simon’s Town Boat Company, was on hand to help us spot the animals and tell us more about the False Bay coast.
On the way back to the harbour we spotted Roman Rock, the only lighthouse in Africa completely surrounded by water.
Underhill says the lighthouse, built on a rock, is powered by solar energy and and has a helipad which allows people to be flown in to do repairs.
Purves says that for the city, False Bay is an important ecological, economic and recreational asset.
“A healthy bay will continue to deliver free ecosystem services to the residents of Cape Town and future generations, if we can all find and share common goals for the bay.”
Yeld-Hutchings says that an important part of the campaign is to make it as interactive as possible in order to get everyone involved and that there is not yet a limit as to how long it will run. - Cape Argus
l To get involved, log on to www.facebook.com/MyFalseBay or search for @MyFalseBay on Twitter and list your reasons why the False Bay coast is important to you.