Larramie, Pat, Kareemah, Una and Farrah                                  Marius

'STATE of ZANDVLEI' JULY 2007

Date:       25 July 2007 (Wednesday)
Time:      19h00 (sharp start)
Venue:    Zandvlei Sports Club, Promenade Road, Lakeside.

To Attend:

AGENDA

 

1. Welcome and Introduction	GL
2. Introducing the S.o.Z	KJ
3. Aim/Objectives of ZIMP	TH
4. Biotic & Abiotic Components:	-
a. Water Quality	CH
b. Salinity	TH/ GL/ CH
c. Sand Prawns (Callianassa krausii)	GZENR
d. Tubeworms	GZENR
e. Potamogeton	GZENR
f. Fish – MCM quarterly surveys	GZENR
g. Birds	CWAC / ADU
h. Frogs	GZENR
i. Mammals	GZENR
j. Plants:	-
i. Alien Clearing	GZENR/ GL
ii. Rehabilitation	GZENR
iii. Botany Group	RP
k. Insects	GL
5. Social:	-
a. litter / cleanup	GL
b. litter nets	PJ
6. History / Oral history	LD
7. Discussion: Question & Answer	ALL
a. better coordination	-
b. resource assistance	-
c. guidance needed	-
8. Conclusion/Way Forward	TH / GL
9. Refreshments	-

Mike, Garnet and Cassy                                                        Pat, Timm and Robin

MINUTES.

1. Gavin Lawson (GL) welcomed all, the attendance as per the register.

Apologies were received from;

• Ian and Sharon McCallum

• Peter Tucker

• Peter Gray

• Gerrard Wigram

• Dennis Mortimer

• Lucia Rodrigues

• Rob MacLean

2. GL Chaired and took the minutes. As the meeting was at shortish notice it was decided to keep the format down to verbal and printed reports, as there was not enough time for all to do overhead projection presentations.

3. Timm Hoffman (TH) handed out his reports, which included diagrams outlining the objectives and aims.

4. Biotic and Abiotic
a. Water Quality - Candice Haskins (CH) gave us a comprehensive report on water quality with graphs and data. These indicated that over the last 30 years the water quality has deteriorated in the main water body due to increased urbanisation. The pollutants are generally diluted, decomposed and or flushed out of the main body when the mouth is opened, to allow the seawater ingress to maintain the salinity and general water levels.
The general bacterial contamination is well within recreational level guidelines, due to die off when exposed to sunlight and saline water. (See CH report attached)
b. Salinity – Martin Thompson (MT) explained that there is a 300mm management height for the water level of Zandvlei. The rubble weir below the Royal Road bridge maintains a level of 700mm above mean sea level (msl). The max level for safe management is 1000mm (msl). This is to protect the concrete ramparts surrounding the channels in of the Marina and Lakeside waters edge. If the water rises above 1000mm (msl) there is danger of flooding properties in the Marina and undercutting the ramparts, which would cause them to fall into the waterbody, and eroding the banks.
The last 5 years of management intervention has raised the salinity levels to acceptable and recommended level for an estuary. (MT) stated that every opening and closing of the mouth of the Zandvlei currently costs R20, 000. The City spends nearly R500, 000 per annum to this effect.
In the early and mid 1990’s the potamogeton (water weed) nearly collapsed as the system had become too fresh.
(TH) with his graphs agreed with those produced by the City that the salinity levels had risen very well in the last 5 years. (See (TM) report attached).
Biodiversity Network – Dalton Gibbs (DG) requested an opportunity to inform the meeting about the imminent launch of the real time reporting system open to any registered person (details with a password is required to access the system). This is an information gathering system to aid planners, managers, researchers and others to gain real time information on the natural environment within the City of Cape Town boundaries. An exciting project and valuable tool. Watch out for the announcements.
c. Sand Prawns – Cassy Sheasby (CS) did not have anything to report.
d. Tubeworms -- (CS) did not have anything to report.
e. Potamogeton -- (CS) did not have anything to report.
f. Fish – Both Garnet Prince (GP) and Mike Hainebach (MH) represented the fishermen and confirmed they would undertake to try and influence fly fishermen to part with their catch information for management purposes. (DG) mentioned that the Biodiversity Network could be used for reporting and the catch information could be excluded from the public domain as general information so as not to give away the ‘secrets of the contributing fishermen’. (CS) will try and obtain the MCM quarterly records.
g. Birds – Marius Wheeler (MW) abbreviated his report, (See report attached) encouraging all to become involved in the BIRP (Birds in Reserves Project). He has supplied (GL) with the forms.
A concern of the winter count is the number of Mallards (17), Mallard hybrids (77), and Domestic Ducks (32) including the Mandarin Duck (1). The Marina da Gama is a hotspot for alien duck species and this could quite possibly affect the whole Peninsula even having a wider negative effect on the wider Provincial scale. As (CS) pointed out it is the responsibility of Cape Nature who has failed to implement their mandate. The responsibility has fallen on the local authority to try and arrest the situation.
Marius appeals to all at Zandvlei to participate in the BIRP for Zandvlei. On behalf of the ADU he thanks all people involved and any additional people are encouraged to join in the programme.
h. Frogs – (CS) and (KJ) the SANBI research project on the Western Leopard Toad. The local Leopard Toads have started calling on 21/07/2007.
i Mammals – (CG) reported sightings of otters around the Marina and the vlei. (CS) reported a Large Spotted Genet on the faunal count in the reserve the previous week.
j. Plants -- Alien Clearing report (GL) is attached was skipped because of time constraints.
iii Botany Group – (RB & PB) showed examples of their work plant pressings, identification. They are busy learning about Phenology- which is the study of the growth cycle of plants. They have been monitoring Psoralea glaucina regarded as critically endangered at Lakeside, the mower cutting them to shreds in early July 2007 disrupted the cycle. (See attached report)
k. Insects – (GL) reported he has photographed and published 18 categories of insects. (Report attached)

5. Social
a. Litter/ cleanups (GL) reported that Zandvlei Trust members pick up 500 black bags a year in four areas around the GZENR. (Report attached).
b. Litter nets (PJ) was not present to give a report.

6. History / Oral History – (LD) reported that he had done one interview which is published on the ZVT website. He is busy with 2 other interviews. He has also found the location of the historical cup of a regatta held on Zandvlei. This needs to be photographed.

7. Discussion and Conclusion with a way forward was skipped because the meeting was running late. The meeting was closed at 21h40.

(TH) and (GL) will work out a way forward for reporting and presentation of information and documentation. It was evident that it would take about 3 to 4 hours to report back, so future ‘Report backs’ will have to be much shorter presentations with the long form of the reports attached to the minutes for all to read in their own time.
The minutes will be published on the ZVT website, under Background Information.

Refreshments were offered to those who wished to stay for informal discussion.

Reports received to date;

1. Candice Haskins            Water Quality Report –           10 pages
2. Gavin Lawson                 Alien vegetation clearing –        1 page
3. Gavin Lawson                 Litter cleanups –                      1 page
4. Gavin Lawson                 Insects –                                 1 page
5. Marius Wheeler              Birds ADU --                            1 page