Preserve estuary by declaring it a marine reserve

EDDIE de Wet‘s letter from Australia makes interesting reading (“River lovers should band together and take on the authorities”, The Herald, June 7), but his comments about the solution meeting with all the different role players will have no positive impact.

The only solution is for the Swartkops estuary to be proclaimed a marine reserve and fishing to be totally banned for a period of at least five years.

At the present rate of destruction the ecology of this area will be destroyed, and his grandchildren will never be able to catch a fish in that river. The ban will do away with the bait diggers, and hopefully the necessary authorities will be able to concentrate on the pollution aspects further upstream.

Marine reserves along our coast is the only way to go to preserve our fishing heritage and I was pleased to read, and hope that this is indeed the fact, that the Tsitsikamma Reserve has not been opened to so-called subsistence people. If this were the case, this area would be stripped of marine resource within a few years.

I am a very keen angler, and the emphasis on angling along our coast must be that of education and releasing fish, otherwise the future generations will find that the fishing is a waste of time. We are already finding that certain species along our coast such as steenbras, galjoen and cob are becoming severely depleted.

Hopefully De Wet is one of those who only keep one good fish for the pot, and release all the others unharmed.

I wish him “stywe lyne” if he returns for another visit, but if the above solution is not implemented, he may as well leave his fishing equipment at home.