‘KNOWLEDGE – improving lives in ocean and coastal systems’ was the theme of the ninth international Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) scientific symposium.
More than 500 local and international marine scientists, biologists, managers and students gathered at the Wild Coast Sun for a week-long symposium organised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board.
The five-day symposium comprised hundreds of presentations and sessions, ranging from keynote presentations to oral and poster presentations.
Rita Adele Steyn, media spokesman of WIOMSA, said the Association’s vision and mission is to study and care for the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), combining science and local indigenous knowledge to promote healthy, functioning ecosystems, and protect ocean resources for all stakeholders. She added that it aims to further community involvement and conservation, connecting people and the environment as together we face the oncoming threat of climate change in a warming ocean.
As part of this effort, the organisation is featuring the voyage of the H?k?le?a, which is a double-hulled voyaging canoe that is currently sailing along the coast of South Africa. Hokule’a has sailed over 19 000 kilometres to get here. Ms Steyn said that the highlights of the conference entailed live-streaming ‘questions and answers’ with the captain, Nainoa Thompson.
Secondly, a short piece of a new film prepared for the COP21 climate meeting in Paris later this year, was screened at the symposium. The film highlights coral reef education in Mayotte. Thirdly, a declaration by WIOMSA will go from this conference to Paris, to carry the voice of delegates about issues facing the Western Indian Ocean, and their suggestions to politicians and governments.
The Western Indian Ocean is incredibly important to countless coastal communities and populations, from small subsistence fishermen, to large ocean-going ships. This part of the world’s oceans sustains millions of people and many industries. The region comprises five mainland countries, stretching out from Somalia to South Africa, and five island states, from Seychelles to Reunion (France). Coral reefs along the coastline of Kenya, Tanzania and northern Mozambique form a fringing reef complex that is among the largest in the world.
“The aim of the association is to advance regional co-operation in all aspects of coastal and marine sciences (including socio-economic and management sciences) and management and to support sustainable development in the Western Indian Ocean Region, while promoting interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches,” were the opening remarks from WIOMSA president, Dr Jaqueline Uku.
WIOMSA has grown from the very first meeting with only 30 delegates to this meeting with more than 500 delegates. As Dr Uku said: “It is beyond the time for us to talk and we must do.”
Dr Mike Watkeys and Dr Hugh Govan were two of six keynote speakers featured throughout the week. Dr Watkeys is from KZN and and spoke about marine geology, saying that from Charles Lyell to Charles Darwin, geology has been changing lives. The evidence of this is in the writings that Charles Darwin produced on, and after, his voyage on the Beagle, during which time he read Charles Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology’ (Vol I, 1832). The importance of this cannot be overlooked because it was the emphasis that Lyell placed on successive changes in both organic and inorganic systems that paved the path to natural selection for Darwin.
Coastlines are organic in nature, ever active and dynamic. Some 200 million years ago there was no Western Indian Ocean at all. After the break-up of Gondwana, the emergence of the world’s first circumpolar current after 38 million years of cooling gave rise to global weather patterns that still operate today.
Speaker Dr Govan stressed that scientists should remember that one of their core purposes is to share and use knowledge to improve the lives of coastal communities. Scientists and biologists should not overlook the bottom-up opportunities that strong communities with local knowledge afford areas in need of protection and management. This is especially important in a country like South Africa, as there is a wealth of untapped and undocumented indigenous knowledge.
Dr Govan studies thirty-million square kilometres of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between Melanasia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, which support some of the fastest growing populations in the world, who are almost totally dependent on coastal fisheries for protein sources as well as livelihoods. Locally Managed Marine Areas, (LMMAs) are being implemented by over 900 communities in the Pacific at an increasingly rapid rate because they are driven by community aspirations. We see the same situation in Africa and the implementation of LMMAs is growing on our continent too.
Speaker Tundi Agardy told the delegates about the importance of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and the lessons in the Western Indian Ocean region that can be learnt from the implementation of MSP. One of the important things to learn is that in conservation efforts the area of intervention may be far away from the area of priority. In other words, protecting a river far from the ocean will in turn also protect the ocean. Using the economic valuation of marine ecosystem services can also lead to greater protection and greater buy-in from government perspectives.
This is a dynamic approach, not a tool and there is a need for flexibility and adaptive management strategies when implementing MSP. However, she said that for best practice, we must also recognise connectivity, manage for multiple uses, and address cumulative impacts. She explained that one cannot ignore the intrinsic value of these areas and systems though, and an economic model or number will never accurately describe the worth of clear water, sunny blue skies, thriving reefs, or stands of mangroves reaching for the sky. Those are values of the heart and soul and we should all call ourselves wealthy because of our rich heritage in the Western Indian Ocean
One of the last keynote speakers, Ivan Nagelkerken, spoke about the ecosystem services provided by mangrove and seagrass systems, which we see right here in KZN. He noted interesting research results such as the connection that nursery areas in mangroves or seagrass beds have to an increase in fish on the reef. Interestingly, coral reefs close to nursery areas have three times higher biomass than those isolated from nursery areas even if they are in an MPA.
Another keynote speaker from Kenya, Christina Hicks, told the audience that ‘no-take areas’ take 10 to 20 years to show an increase in fish biomass, and in that way get a return on their protection investment. She explained that the benefits gained from ecosystem services that marine systems provide are not always perceived in the same way depending on the role that people play in the cultural and management systems. Compromises must be made, trade-offs must be accepted and, in that way, more equitable benefits can spread across all people, because a protected ocean is a healthy, beautiful one and something that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Source: Information sourced from Rita Adele Steyn’s blog: blog.wiomsa.net. Ms Steyn is from the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), National Research Foundation PDP Fellow (SAEON), PhD Candidate – Rhodes University, Department of Zoology and Entomology and the SANCOR Steering Committee Student Representative.
Photographs by CC Photography
