Stop, think, then proceed ahead
MY observations are that few people are voluntarily compliant. This is witnessed at about every stop street in this country.
People do not stop at such streets but merely roll through, using them as yield signs.
Has it become a way of life that we have subconsciously stopped but, in fact, are in such a hurry that the stop was merely a micro moment in time?
Does the mind think that fast? – I think so. Our actions are so that we never consider consequences.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University senior lecturer Dr Nadine Strydom, a researcher in coastal fish ecology, is conducting a toxicology study, the results of which show that many toxins are stored in the fatty tissue of fish.
Pregnant and soon-to-be breastfeeding women have been advised to take special care when consuming fish. The toxins found in fish can be transferred to newborns through fats found in breast milk.
Burning coal releases heavy metals, such as chrome and mercury, into the atmosphere. Coal-burning ships on our shores, for example, poison tuna, which has been identified by researchers as a high-toxin bearer. Our freshwater fish have suffered the same fate, with this fallout also affecting our dams.
Species that must be avoided are ground feeders and slow growers such as reef fish.
Shad that is not predatory and sardines that do not live long are safe for consumption. Cob should be eaten sparingly.
The spotted grunter is most probably one the species that must be avoided because it is a bottom feeder. Also, it dwells in estuaries that are commonly polluted by industrial metals, which can easily enter river systems through drains.
Bait selection is rather an art of reading conditions versus what is available and what is going to work.
The scarcer the bait is, the chances are it will be more productive. This has led people to take bait to areas where it does not occur and use it there.
This theory is basically true with artificial lure angling. Fish are predators and many species are territorial, so they will attack anything that presents a threat to their environment. People are much the same, by the way.
As we have looked at different angling locations around the Eastern Cape, through this column, I have come to realise what an angling paradise we live in.
The real angler, who can walk the coastline, can access spots that seldom see a line these days because of the ban on driving at beaches. These are things to come in various forms.
Next we shall see closed seasons and nighttime bans.
The Breede River is already earmarked for such an angling nighttime ban, as advertised in the Government Gazette.
This is the result of not being the good example we should all be. The culture of taking every fish caught home will be our angling demise in the end.
