The water level in the mouth was not even ankle deep. The big question is: Does one let nature run its course or does intervention become justified before great damage is done to a very sensitive environmental area?
Personally I believe the silting of the river mouth is due to man’s actions (which are not natural) in some way and that an excavator with a little financial assistance would be a fix and win situation.
It is better that this happens before the situation is allowed to deteriorate to the extent where intervention becomes too costly and complicated.Perhaps we can see a little return of the revenues collected from the fees we pay to use the rivers in the form of registration of craft and angling licence fees.
What surprises me is that I have heard little reaction to the proposed amendments on the Marine Living Resources Act 1998 regarding the recreational angling scene.
These changes will be felt in time to come and might be good in some cases, but I personally believe it is going to destroy our weekend pleasures of night angling on the estuaries.
I fail to see how such steps are going to benefit the environment. The angler with his or her two rods cannot impact on fish stock that significantly.
Removing the angler, who is also the “eyes and ears” out there at night, will escalate illegal activities in their absence.
The surge of gill-netting in its total destructive nature will result in a free-for-all. No night angling effectively means little or no night law enforcement and open prospects for the criminal element.
What was supposed to protect the environment will in fact have the opposite effect in the long run, I believe.
On the angling scene, catches are spread out around the bay and a variety of species have been caught. Some goodsized kob have been noted along with pig-nosed grunter and the odd musselcracker on the wild side of the bay where the water is warmer than it is in the bay.
Blacktail, hottentot and stumpnose have also been caught as expected. The usual species are being caught in the estuaries too, with some reasonable grunter taking lures.
We have just experienced our winter solstice, when the sun is the furthest north of the equator. As a result we have experienced a severe spring tide, making for potentially dangerous angling conditions – especially along the rocky coastlines where big surf and rip currents prevail at this time.
Inside the bay the water temperature is just below 17°C.
The weekend’s weather: Low tide is at 10.48am with a stable barometer at just below standard air pressure, creating favourable wind conditions with a light westerly prevailing for the duration of the day, turning easterly by sunset.
Typical winter air temperatures are expected to be around 16°C tomorrow with warmer conditions following on Sunday, when a light northerly breeze will make for ideal angling conditions.