June 2007
Islander's fear the worse for their lobster fishery
When the Oil Rig ran aground on the south of Tristan last year, the islanders main concern were what aliens it may have brought and what damage it may cause to their fragile lobster fishery, the main revenue earner on the island.
Their worse fears were confirm when a fish caught by George Swain recently off the volcano, was identity as being an American silver porgy (Diplodus argenteus). This fish was part of a shoal that followed the Oil Rig from South America last year and is know to be a fast-reproducing opportunist. The silver porgy was caught some 12 miles from the position of the sunken rig and the islanders were hoping that all aliens accompanying the rig would have died or get eaten by predators. Now we know this was not the case, and that this fish as well as other aliens, could already be well spread around the island.
However there has been some good news and that is 75,000 has been granted by the UK Department of Environment's Darwin Initiative to fund a marine biodiversity project, run in partnership with RSPB, and Marine Biologists Sue Scott, Rob Anderson, Cameron Hay and John Bolton from the University of Cape Town.
This funding will be spread over the next two financial years and will finance approximately twenty underwater survey dives around Nightingale and Inaccessible, as well as monitoring of the Trypot Bay area where the stranded oil rig was removed and sunk earlier this year.
Tristan relies entirely on the lobster (Jasus tristani) fishery, but very little survey work has been carried out on the marine life of Tristan, despite its obvious importance to the islanders. The local fisheries rely on a healthy marine ecology, and the purpose of this project is to enable the people of Tristan to make informed decisions leading to sustainable use of the marine environment of Tristan.
There will also be funding available from the project for two Tristanians to do a commercial diving course in Cape Town in the coming year, and this will help build the diving capacity on the island.
Sarah Glass
M.V. Edinburgh's departure delayed
The MV Edinburgh arrived at Tristan on Wednesday 30th May at 8.00pm. However since then she has only managed to have one day unloading due to bad weather conditions. She has been anchored at Inaccessible island until weather conditions improved, as there is another days work to unload the rest of the cargo before back loading, taking passengers, and heading for Cape Town. Originally she was due to depart Tristan on the 2nd June, now because of bad weather she could be as much as a week behind her deadline. For those passengers catching flights to Europe they may have to change their tickets.
Sarah Glass
