Climate change and other environmental issues have been dominating world news so it was no surprise that the Minister raised these in the Budget Vote for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism at the beginning of June.
Announcing that during 2008/9 the first ever Long Term National Climate Policy will be published, he said that it had taken a lot of work to get to this point. This has involved input from an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change tasked with identifying possible long term scenarios and their cost implications, especially regarding emissions; the creation and refining of sector plans by cities, provinces and national departments in line with the national Climate Change Response Strategy; and the finalisation of an updated Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

Linked to climate change is the impact on the environment - on land and at sea. While some plant and animal species face extinction because of rising temperatures, so to has this been experienced in the fishing industry. Recently a large group of scientists gathered in Cape Town at a Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) Climate Change workshop to debate the changing state of the Benguela system which they say, based on evaluating 50 years of data, should be viewed as a warning of what is to come.

Fishermen become emotional when there are no fish, hence the drive for aquaculture development in South Africa. While the Minister says his Department will be initiating four marine aquaculture projects, one in each coastal province in the 2007/8 financial year, the question of whether aquaculture should be viewed as an alternative source for job creation is raised on page 15.

Recently Andy Johnston of the Artisanal Fishers Association, was invited on a fact finding mission to Chile to have a look at the aquaculture industry there. This was at the expense of the South African government and he says he was hugely surprised to discover at the airport that he was travelling first class (as did everyone else). It is no coincidence that since the Minister's reversal in his attitude to traditional artisanal fishers and the suspension of the court case brought by Masifundise in the Equality Court (see page 6), that Andy is now being labelled a "friend" and not a foe!

The Minister is also concentrating his efforts on our national parks and transfrontier conservation areas to develop an infrastructure that will be able to cater adequately for the influx of tourists during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Referring to the results of the National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment as being "a warning to us all" in his Budget Vote to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), he quotes that 34% of our terrestrial ecosystems are threatened with 5% critically endangered; 82% of our 120 rivers are threatened with 44% critically endangered, three of our 13 groups of estuarine biodiversity are in critical danger, with 12% marine bio-zones under serious threat… Why then would he even be considering opening up the Tsitsikamma Marine Protected Area to fishing?

In conclusion this issue records two launches of a different kind: that of Bluefin Holdings new (and controversial) premises at Hout Bay harbour, and of DEAT's new research vessel, the MV Ellen Khuzwayo. Incidently the money did not come from Marine Living Resources Funds!

Editor.

Cover Story

The MV Ellen Khuzwayo research vessel made her appearance recently "sailing" down Table Bay Boulevard literally at a crawl aboard a modular trailer system supplied by Vanguard. Her impressive statistics are outweighed by the fact that at about 500 tonnes she is according to boat builder, FarOcean Marine, probably the heaviest vessel ever to have been transported on a public road. Her equipment is currently being commissioned and thereafter sea trials will commence. See Page 21 for full story.