Breede River Lodge - Blue Room

Minutes of BREAF meeting, held on 17 February 2012 at 10am,

Breede River Lodge - Blue Room

1. Welcome:

The Chairman, Jack Walsh called the meeting to order at 10:08 and thanked everyone for attending.

1. Welcome to new members:

The Chairman welcomed new member, KobusBaard, representing the Witsand/Heidelberg Angling Club, to the committee, with the request that he also represents all recreational fishermen using the estuary. The Chairman thanked Johnny Swart for attending and representing the Witsand Ratepayers Association.

The Chairman also welcomed Cilla Geldenhuys who will be sitting in for the meeting as an observer for the LBRC.

1. Apologies:

Mrs BulelewaMsengi -Sanparks

GehrardCilliers – RQS/WQTWG

Francois Kotze – Overberg District Municipality

Nico Nel – Swellendam Municipality

1. Absentees:

AyandaMatoti – Oceans and Coasts

Rob Wilson – WRA / Engineering Advisor

1. Confirmation of minutes for the meeting of the 16th September 2011:

Proposer: Tim Arnott

Seconded: Peter Muller

1. Special resolution:

Members will remember that the Chairman, Jack Walsh indicated his wish to stand down as Chairman due to pressures at work, and in view of the fact that he felt that probably three years participation was a satisfactory length of time for a person to stand as such. The appointment of Rupert Bellairs as a member of the Committee, and his election as Chairman of the Advisory Forum, has been proposed by JW Walsh and seconded by Pierre De Villiers. The matter was put to the vote and, by the unanimous decision of the Committee it was:

Resolved that Rupert Bellairs be elected forthwith as a member of the Committee and that he would take over as Chairman with effect from the 1st March 2012.

The Chairman, confirmed that he held a letter of confirmation from Rupert Bellairs to the effect that he would be honoured to assume the responsibility if he was so elected.

1. Matters arising:

a)Registration of slipways

DEADP is in communication with the Municipalities regarding the registration of slipways. DEADP has notified parties, which notification did not come directly to the Advisory Forum, to the effect that they will be undertaking a “blitz” on certain estuaries against the general public were they to be found using an unregistered slipway. The notice reads as follows:

You are hereby notified that in terms of Regulation 7(1) of the Control of Vehicles in the Coastal Zone Regulations, which were promulgated in terms of section 44 of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998: “No person shall be entitled to use a vehicle in the coastal zone for the purpose of launching or landing vessels from a boat launching site that is not licensed in terms of this regulation, unless such use is a permissible use.”

It has been determined that this is an unlicensed site. Accordingly, any person(s) found launching from this site may, in terms of Regulation 14:

(a)be arrested by any authorised officer;

(b)have their vehicle seized;

(c)be issued with a summons, in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977, at any time within 30 days of the alleged commission of the offence.

Members of the public are encouraged to report any unlawful use of this site to the National 24 hour Toll-free Environmental Crimes and Incidents Hotline 0800 205 005.

The Chairman said that relevant to such letter from DEADP that he still feels they can’t use the ORV regulations to support the process of registering slipways. There is a definite need for controlling and registering slipways, but using the ORV regulations will leave this process open to debate and attack. The Chairman is concerned that this type of letter, stating that there will be a blitz enforcement targeting certain slipways that arenot registered, and to fine the public who use them, will simply cause chaos and a great deal of upset.

The Conservancy reported that Carmen van Uys had said that they have not yet decided which slipways will be targeted, but that they are determined to go ahead with the process. It was suggested that they may be lenient in regard to the Hessequa side of the river as they have already applied and indicated their willingness to take responsibility for such registration conditions as may be determined.

In this regard Peter Muller pointed out two negative, possibly unavoidable, effects that these new regulations would have. Firstly there will be an increased financial impact on boat owners who are already highly taxed in respect of recreational fishing on the river, and then of course it would require additional law enforcement by the LBRC which he hoped would not need to reduce their efforts in regard to education and conservation.

Rhett Hiseman said that he has attended many of these workshops and meetings where he had expressed his concerns and opinions on much the same lines and they have not once taken them into consideration. As a result he no longer believes there is any point in attending these meetings because it ends up being a waste of time, resources, and money from his point of view.

b)Template in regard to the need for zonation or other activities for a specific species

The Chairman asked Bronwyn how she was going in this regard as she had promised to propose such a template to the Forum. She indicated that she would give this her immediate attention having commenced evaluating the general species spectrum towards these ends.

c)New developments

i)Nobody at the Forum was aware of any new development applications. ShagonCarelse will follow up with Hessequa as to whether any have surfaced there.

ii)Rhett Hiseman noted that the De Kock development had been approved in principle up to a point, but still had to be approved by other parties including Cape Nature.

iii)The Draft Basic Assessment for the Dune Stabilisationat Witsand had been sent out for comment. LBRC’s comments are attached here to as anannexure. These more or less fall in line with general public opinion in Witsand and the approach of the Witsand Ratepayers Association. The report will be submitted to the Ratepayers Association and Shagon was asked to pass it on to the Development and Planning Department at Hessequa.

iv)It was noted that the proposed Desalination Plant EIS had been withdrawn by Hessequa and will not be continued by the consultants. There is a rumour that the question might be reconsidered by the Municipality later once it had dealt with all possible alternatives. It was noted that Rob Wilson was in touch with the Municipality on behalf of the Witsand Ratepayers Association in regard to the general poor water situation in Witsand,and he would in due course, report back to BREAF in respect of pending discussions.

d)Warning signs

Peter Muller indicated that theLBRCwished to erect warning signs in regard to the presence of Zambesi sharks in the river. They presently did nothave the funds to cover this. ShagonCarelse asked that Peter submit a quotation to him for onward transmission to Hessequa indicating that he anticipated that they would pay for such signage.

e)Water Quality

The Chairman reported that he received a letter from Gerhard Cilliers who asked that the letter be read out to the committee at the meeting. In the letter Gerhard thanked Bronwyn Botha from the LBRC for her dedication towards the project and all the hard work that she has put into it so far.

Peter Muller thanked Gerhard Cilliers for his all his support.

Bronwyn Botha informed the committee that she will be meeting with Harold van Niekerk in the next week to discuss where permanent salinity stations could be put up in the Breede River.

Pierre de Villiers thanked Bronwyn Botha and the LBRC for their dedication towards the project and said that he is sure that it will show results in more ways than one. He suggested the LBRC remain aware that as matters developed he was sure that revenue would become available to the LBRC in terms of an eventual MOU in regard to the necessary collection and collation of data required by this study.

f)Setback lines

Makwa said that this project is in the process of finalising the lines and that there will be more meetings from March 2012.

Vernon Gibbs said that Aiden Woods from Rhodes University has been appointed to run the project.

Pierre de Villiers said that there are models to work on when determining the lines, but the process will take time and there will always be issues to be dealt with.

g)Alien Vegetation

The Chairman asked ShagonCarelse why there is not something done on a continuous basis and if the Municipalities were going to take a more proactive look at this situation.

Shagon Carelse said that the costs for this long term project are very high, but that they have applied for funding in the next budget. He undertook to report back on this matter at the next meeting.

Hessequa, LBRC, and Eden would all follow up on further participation by “Working For TheCoast” (Coastcare).

h)Kob protection

The Night ban appears to have once again fallen off the radar and the LBRC had indicated that it was putting in a proposal to the Municipality to build certain new controls into the anticipated amended By-Laws relating to the river.

Nick Scholtz explained that the Municipalities are in the process of revising their By-laws and the LBRC has proposed the banning of trolling of artificial lures.

The Chairman noted that there was a large degree of resistance to a night ban on Kob fishing, but an equally large degree of support for the banning of the trolling of Rapala-type lures. He felt that it would be very unfair to single the Breede River out as the source of an individual night ban that applied to no other rivers and believed that the importance of the threat of overfishing by the use of certain lures was much more relevant presently.

Vernon Gibbs said that the Eden District Municipality was not included in this process (as far as he knows) and that if Eden does not sign off on this the process will not be legal.

Shagon Carelse said that Eden will be included in the smaller workshops held with each individual estuary and that they know of this process.

Peter Muller informed and explained to the committee the background information to the proposed ban of trolling of artificial lures:

-LBRC engaged Nicholas Smith, from Smith & Ndlovo Associates to set up a proposal based on safety. This proposal was then submitted to the Municipal councils to be built into the By-laws, soon afterwards the Munisipalities advised that they will be revising their By-laws but now this process will take a further 6 more months and has been delayed. The LBRC will be asking the Municipality to speed up this process to make sure the ban comes into place as soon as possible before the next Kob season in September.

1. New Matters:

a)Coastal Committee Representation

The Chairman noted that it was good to see how the Coastal Committee under the stewardship of Eden and Vernon Gibbs had gone from strength to strength and that he was very pleased that to avoid duplication of effort that it was intended that the Committee responsible for the implementation of the Integrated Coastal Management plan would be absorbed into the overall Eden Coastal Committee. It appeared that this was the way that matters had gone in Overberg as well and Pierre indicated that the Committee structures were now effectively in place and urged that all bodies such as the LBRC(BRMA) should ensure that they were adequately represented on such Committee. Vernon Gibbs indicated that he hoped that the Chairman of the relevant local and estuarine authorities would represent their entities, but if this was not possible, that strong and active representation must occur. The LBRC has appointed Nick Scholtz to represent them and the Forum in this matter.

The Chairman also noted the formation of a Local Environmental Committee for Witsand township and trusted that such Committee would be relevant and advise the Advisory Forum on such matters that might be of their concern.

b)Management Authority Matters, Funding, SLA with Municipalies and MOU with MCM

Peter Muller gave a detailed report of all major activities and issues that the LBRC are facing at the moment.

Economic value survey questionnaires were finalised and the survey started from the first week of December. Jane Turpey has agreed that we run it through to Easter to ensure we reach our target of 450.

SAMSA COF certifications. Nick and Tania both passed exams and will be appointed as SAMSA agents unlike De Lange and Du Toit who are sub-agents via affiliates like SAADSA.

Holiday season was more evenly spread this year with less significant spikes. LBRC had a good presence at all times with optimum utilisation of part-time Rangers. SAPS assisted at peak times. A WATCH programme was introduced with volunteers observing behaviour and reporting actions worthy of investigation. Fortunately the holiday period was fairly incident free with only one serious boating incident recorded with a novice executing a clockwise turn and colliding with a child on a tube. Driver was a renter at Riverine and disappeared before the Rangers could check his skippers ticket and boat.

Revenue was badly affected by large decline in boat license fees and at end December was R100k down on previous year although a lot of that was due to late reporting by agents. Net figure for the year-to- date is lower than last three years.

By-law amendments are currently in progress with one workshop already completed in January. Our approach was to go through all the existing River Management by-laws and propose amendments/deletions where appropriate.

LBRC funding is in a precarious state. Without going into detail we simply cannot continue the way we are and have seriously constrained ability to implement the estuary management plan. The reasons for this are:

• Non-renewal of the compliance MOU with MCM = a loss of R250k
• Advice by Hessequa that no funding will be forthcoming for this financial year = shortfall of R300k against budget
• Reduction in receipts from boat licensing = R100k shortfall against target and previous year.

Swellendam Municipality has been fully supportive and has continued grants over and above their share of boat license income.

We are effecting savings wherever possible but are continually faced with unpleasant surprises re maintenance of ageing equipment. The boat engines are beyond their realistic life expectancy and the road vehicles equally so. Because of treatment by MCM we have depleted our reserves by continuing in good faith to meet our obligations in terms of the MOU in anticipation of renewal. For six months we thus spent money we were unable to recover.

Both municipalities have renewed the existing MOU’s on a temporary basis while we finalise a new fully tripartite agreement. Discussions were held separately with Swellendam and Hessequa who agreed in principle that a three-way agreement would be preferable. A joint meeting was held in Riversdale on Friday 13 January (with N Nel attending for Swellendam). It was agreed that the LBRC would draft the new tripartite agreement and forward this to them by Sunday 22 January. Cilla G completed the mammoth task on time and we now await their response.

c)Estuarine Initiative Matters

As discussed earlier Pierre de Villiers indicated that he was very pleased that there are now functional reporting lines and structures in place, that all should work in terms of the anticipation of the Estuarine Initiative, coupled to the requirements of the Integrated Coastal Management Act.

BREAF was satisfactorily operational in all regards and the LBRC (BRMA) was working well towards the implementation of the Management Plan and more than adequately carrying out its current duties on behalf of the Municipalities. With the structures now in place both parties should find it far easier to achieve their required ends in consultation with both Regional and National Government.

d)) Zonation

The Chairman noted that the collation of information in terms of the need for any zonation was extremely important. However he agreed with Bronwyn that certain areas lent themselves to protection restrictions that would not in any manner effect the usage of stakeholders of the river’s resources. It would only be necessary to consider other zonation areas if scientific proof backed up by anecdotal information indicated that river resources were being exploited past the point of reasonable sustainability.

Pierre de Villiers asked Bronwyn Botha and the LBRC if they could not produce a map of existing zonation, coupled with proposed naturally zonated areas for circulation before the next meeting.