The research, which monitored trawl fishers off the coast of South Africa from 2006, showed that the use of the lines resulted in a reduction of 90% in seabird deaths and 99% in albatross deaths.

Seabirds, especially albatrosses and petrels, are drawn in their thousands by the offal discarded from onboard processing factories. While they’re scavenging, they become tangled in the trawl cables and drown.

Trawlers (mainly the hake fishery) use large nets, held in the water by thick cables, to trawl the seafloor. The scare lines – a simple 30m length of strong rope with five to 10 paired lines of visible streamers attached – work by distracting and confusing the birds, keeping them away from the trawl cables.

Accidental seabird deaths during fishing pose the single biggest threat to seabird populations around the world, says co-author of the paper Dr Ross Wanless, a UCT research associate and seabird division manager and the Africa co-ordinator of the BirdLife International Marine Programme.

Their research focused on the roman (which most people know as the red roman, Chrysoblephus laticeps), a sea bream endemic to South Africa’s coast. Examining 15 years of data, they found that the establishment of the Goukamma MPA did not result in a drop in total catch, nor did the fleet have to travel greater distances to get the catch.

The suggestion is that roman left the MPA as fish densities built up, spilling out into areas where catching them was legal. In addition, a boost in roman egg production in the protected area would benefit unprotected areas too, as eggs drift with the currents.

Dr Piotr Wolski, senior research officer in the Department of Environment and Geographical Science, together with Professor Bruce Hewitson, director of the Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG) at UCT, and colleagues in the USA, have laboured over models of the delta’s future, and have concluded that more severe flooding is unlikely, despite the general prediction that anthropogenic climate change leads to an increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as floods.

According to their paper, published in the Journal of Hydrology in January 2014, greenhouse gas emissions have in fact substantially reduced the chance of the floods. “The air is warmer in the climate we are experiencing and the river takes a long time to flow down to the delta,” explains Dr Wolski, “so you get more evaporation occurring before the river even reaches the delta, and thus fewer high floods.” However, natural variability in the system means that above-average flooding will continue to occur.

“If not for climate change,” says Dr Wolski, “the Okavango system would have experienced even larger flooding from 2009 to 2011 than it actually did.” However, he said that in the long term, the delta was likely to shrink somewhat in size.

For someone hailing from a country where the fishing industry is a pillar of the economy, it’s hardly surprising that Ndjaula’s postdoctoral studies in marine biology revolve around the population dynamics of small pelagic fish like sardines and anchovies. Her doctorate and master’s in marine biology were completed in Norway.

DFC uses solar energy to dry frozen horse mackerel, which is then distributed to outlets run by WEDI, a women’s co-operative that has exclusive distribution rights focused on rural areas.

Kuhn used four indicators to assess the health of the GWWA: changes in the intensity of gulley erosion and the extent of soil deposition areas; changes in composition and extent of cover of the vegetation; changes in two specific Protea species; and changes in thickets around rocky areas.

After 40 years of protected area management, she found that gulley erosion had stabilised and that most deposition areas had become vegetated. Total basal cover was approximately eight times greater than it was in 1973. The Protea nitida population was more than five-and-a-half times greater and had a large number of juvenile individuals. The Protea laurifolia population was approximately four times greater, with the dominant class shifting from adults in 1973 to seedlings in 2013. An extensive fire in 2009 took its toll on thicket cover at some, but not all, rocky outcrop locations. “While evidence suggests an improvement of most ecosystem health indicators and therefore an effective management regime, the GWWA is still at risk of being affected by climate change with an increased aridity and occurrence of wildfires predicted for the area,” concludes Kuhn.