October 2014 MONTHLY REPORT

Transcription

1 October 2014 MONTHLY REPORT Compliance Management Throughout October a total of 27 recreational fishing and bait collecting permits were checked by the rangers. All 27 permits were valid with no fines or warnings necessary. No other major compliance events took place this month. New Student Accommodation The new student accommodation continues into the final stages of completion. The restoration of the second hand window frames has taken up quite a chunk of time, however the results are looking to be worth the effort. Ruan and Petro replaced the glass toward the end of the month with new putty and wood beading. Painting the floor with Woodoc 25, oiling the building on the outside and designing the interior are what remains to be done. Some of this work will be carried over to our new student starting at the end of November. The window frames after restoration.

2 Snake removal call-out On the 24 th of October the rangers received a phone call from a concerned Boggomsbaai resident regarding a Cape Cobra, Naja nivea, sighted in their garden. With no time to spare, Ruan and Petro reacted immediately. Unfortunately, upon arrival the rangers inspected the residence only to find that the snake had already disappeared into the neighbouring undeveloped property. The owners informed the rangers that the snake has been sighted a couple of times in the area by neighbouring owners. The rangers suggested that if the snake is sighted again the owners can call them again. Management Meeting On the 17 th of October, the Fransmanshoek Conservancy held its 4 th management meeting for The meeting was relatively well attended with representatives from Vleesbaai, Fransmanshoek, Kleinbos and Springerbaai attending. The committee would also like to welcome Frits Nortje as Boggomsbaai s new representative. Frits presence at the meeting was welcomed and the Conservancy look forward to working with Frits in the future regarding any issues in Boggomsbaai. Other than that, the usual topics were covered and recapped on. Highlights included the arrival of the chipper and a discussion on how this is going to influence alien clearing in the future. The new student ranger for 2015 was discussed as well as removal of the old Telkom lines on Fransmanshoek. All in all the meeting was a success with progress being reported in various fields. Just a reminder that our AGM this year will take place on the 18 th of December at 10h00, at Riekie van Rensburgs Farm, Misgunst. All are welcome and we extend a special invitation to residence of Springerbaai, Kleinbos, Boggomsbaai, Vleesbaai and Kanon. Please would representatives for each area inform their residents that they are most welcome to attend. We understand that it is the holiday season and no one really wants to attend meetings at this time, however if you are interested in what we have been up to in the year or would like to raise an issue you feel we should be addressing, this is the platform to do it from. Jeppe Girls Every year a group of grade 11 girls from Jeppe High School for girls in Johannesburg visits the Garden Route for an environmental educational tour. Their first stay over is at Boggomsbaai where the Conservancy rangers take them on a guided environmental educational experience around the coastline. On the 6 th of October the student rangers met up with the girls for their annual walk. The walk started at Boggomsbaai and ended at Cape Vacca. As always, the walk started with a beach clean-up from Boggomsbaai to Vleesbaai where eight refuse bags of litter were collected. Various stops were taken along the walk in order to introduce previous human occupation sites, marine ecology and great ocean explorers. Although extreme temperatures of 32 C made the walk exhausting the rangers could happily inform that the girls once again enjoyed the walk along our stunning coastline.

3 A group photo of the girls at the half way mark at Fransmanshoek(left) and the girls at the end of the walk at Cape Vacca(right). Telkom Lines After a couple of months of administrative hurdles, Roland and Telkom have finally come to an agreement to remove the old telephone lines along the Fransmanshoek road. The idea was first suggested by Wim Fullard at a previous management meeting. Wim noted accurately that the lines were in disrepair, most hanging on the ground or already stolen. What followed was first identifying who to contact in Telkom regarding the matter (this took a while). After a very helpful contact was located, the process got going. Roland then got written confirmation from all Fransmanshoek landowners that the lines are no longer in use and are not needed by the landowners. Once this had been achieved, the poles were bought from Telkom by Riekie at a pretty good price. All that is left now is that Telkom actually come and remove the old lines. Once they have removed the lines, Riekie and the rangers will start removing the old poles. If anyone else would like to remove old Telkom lines in the Garden Route area, please contact Roland and he will give you the contact details of the person you need to talk to within Telkom. Chipper Those who read August monthly report will recall the announcement of the approval of R from the Garden Route Casino Community Trust for the purchase of a chipper. And so it was with great enthusiasm that the rangers came to work on the 16 th knowing that the chipper would arrive that day. TOMCAT delivered the chipper free of charge and included a short training run. TOMCAT also threw in an extra set of blades for the chipper for free. The chipper will see a drastic change to the way Acacia cyclops is managed throughout the Conservancy, and the rangers can t wait to get chipping.

4 The TOMCAT chipper just arrived. New Student for 2015 The conservancy decided that it would be best in terms of budget that only one student would be needed for the 2015 student programme. In the month of August an invite was sent to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in George and Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town. A number of applications were recieved from students from both universities. However Achley Nortje from NMMU offered to come and patrol with Roland for the day. Achley has excellent grades and put in the extra effort to come and spend time on the Conservancy as a way for him to see if he really would like to do his practical year with us, as well as so that Roland could gauge whether Achley would be suitable for the post. Achley was asked to come and assist with building operations as a sought of technical test, of which Achley was more than proficient with power tools and logical thinking. The notion to accept him for the 2015 post was proposed to the committee who had no objection to it. We therefore welcome Achley to the team and look forward to working with him in Humpback Whale Carcass On the 26 th of October, residents contacted Roland regarding a whale carcass that had washed out between Boggomsbaai and Vleesbaai. On the 28 th, Petro went to inspect only to find a complete skeleton, with the last bit of flesh still attached, of a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). The whale must have been rotting under the sea for a while before the strong easterly weather of that weekend washed it ashore. There was even evidence of shark bites on the tail. Roland contacted the necessary authorities, regarding the carcass. Roland further decided it would be a nice project to salvage the skeleton and display it at Fransmanshoek. It must be noted that no one is permitted to be in possession of any marine mammal without the necessary permit. Roland was aware of this and contacted Oceans and Coast in Cape Town in order to carry out the necessary application process. The process got started however in the interim it seems the municipality have buried the whale higher up on the beach where it washed out.

5 The tail of the Humpback Whale showing evidence of what looks like scavenging sharks. The entire carcass which was about 10m in length. Monthly Species Profile The magnificent humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is renowned for its impressive leaping displays and for the mysterious singing of solitary males. Common name: Humpback whale Scientific name: Megaptera novaeangliae Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Family: Balaenopteridae Conservation Status: The humpback whale is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Description: The body is blue-black in colour, with pale or white undersides. The flippers reach up to five meters in length making it the largest appendage of any animal. On the underside of the mouth is 12 to 36 expandable throat grooves which assist in feeding. Humpbacks

6 have characteristically knobbly heads, covered in many raised lumps ('tubercles') and barnacles. Two blowholes are situated on the back of the whales, the spout of water is in a bushy shape. The spreading tail flukes have a distinct indentation in the middle, as the whale undertakes a deep dive it usually arches its back (hence the common name) so that the tail flukes are raised above the water and clearly visible. The pattern on the underside of the flukes is unique and can be used to photo-identify and track individuals. Habitat: Humpback whales live at the surface of the ocean, both in the open ocean and shallow coastline waters. Humpback whales make extensive seasonal migrations between high latitude summer feeding grounds and low latitude wintering grounds. Winters are spent mating and calving in warm sub-tropical waters with an annual migration back to colder waters to feed. Diet: Humpback whales are baleen whales, which mean they filter their food through baleen plates. They strain krill, anchovies, cod, sardines, mackerel, capelin, and other schooling fish from the waters. Some humpbacks have been observed creating "bubble nets" to catch their prey. The whales dive deep then swim up in a spiral pattern, while releasing a steady stream of bubbles from their blow holes. As the bubbles rise they form a "net" that surrounds the whales' prey. The whales swim up through the centre of the bubble net and feed on the prey trapped inside. Behaviour: Humpback whales have complex courtship behaviours. Often many males will surround a single female hitting each other in a competition to get close to her. Females become pregnant about every two to four years, and are pregnant with each calf for about 11 to 12 months. The calves can grow 0.5 metres per month while nursing on their mother s rich milk. Females nurse their newborn calves in warm, shallow water. Because of an absence of teeth which can be used to estimate age in other mammals, it is difficult to tell the age of a humpback whale but they are believed to live up to 80 years. References: pback_whale/ RUAN MATTHEE PETRO ROSSOUW ROLAND SCHOLTZ FRANSMANSHOEK CONSERVANCY ranger@fransmanshoek.co.za

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