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The Marine Environment

Marine Environment

The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME)

The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) in the southeast Atlantic Ocean is one of the world's four major eastern boundary currents, which undergo intense upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich waters that support high phytoplankton biomasses and abundant forage fish resources. The forage fishes, in turn, are fed upon by numerous predators, including seabirds. The BCLME ranges from approximately Benguela in southern Angola to Algoa Bay in southern South Africa, being bounded in the north and east by the warm Angola and Agulhas currents, respectively.

Namibia's coastline is home to a wide diversity of wildlife, with many endemic seabird species. Seabirds are an integral element of biodiversity and, being top predators and visible, serve as key indicators of the state and health of the marine ecosystem. The Namibian Islands' Marine Protected Area (NIMPA) was proclaimed in 2009, stretching 400 km along the southern Namibian coast, covering almost 10,000 km², with a key objective to protect the breeding sites and main foraging areas of seabirds along Namibia’s coast. Unfortunately, a management plan has not yet been completed or implemented, there is a lack of human capacity and insufficient funding in the marine conservation sector in Namibia, so the NIMPA is largely ineffective and not fulfilling its mission.

The Namibian crash of sardine and anchovy stocks more than five decades ago showed the shift of a productive upwelling ecosystem to a less efficient system dominated by poor-value species like the bearded goby. This has contributed to the dramatic, ongoing decline in the populations of the African Penguin (>50% since the 1970s), the Cape Gannet (90% since the 1970s), the Bank- and Cape Cormorants (>50% in the last three decades). The main threats facing seabirds in Namibia include a lack of good quality food availability, marine oil pollution and habitat loss. Diseases, such as highly pathogenic Avian Influenza which killed over 500 adult African Penguins in 2019, also pose a threat.

NIMPA

The Namibian Islands’ Marine Protected Area (NIMPA)

Apart from providing food and shelter for diverse plant and animal life, the southern Namibian coastline, with its extensive reefs and associated kelp beds offers important nursery grounds for juvenile and larval stages of rock lobsters and some fish, and an array of bays provide breeding habitat for marine mammals, including seals, dolphins and the majestic Southern right whale. A number of islands, islets and rocks dotted along thesouthern Namibian coast provide valuable breeding habitats and roosting grounds for a range of birds of high conservation importance. However, the balance and health of this unique and delicate ecosystem is being threatened in a number of ways - mainly through the effects of human activities.

The Namibian Islands' Marine Protected Area, covering almost one million hectares of sea area, including a number of islands and islets,was proclaimed in 2008. Formal regulations pertaining to each island were gazetted in December 2012. Its broad aims are:

The sound management and conservation of marine resources along Namibia’s southern coast;
The conservation of unique biodiversity hotspots and globally Important Bird Areas (IBAs);
The protection of the breeding colonies and key foraging habitats of seabirds;

The protection of spawning and nursery grounds of rock lobster and of some fish stocks, to promote stock recovery;
The improved vigilance regarding risks posed by shipping-related threats, e.g. oil spills;
The commitment to international treaties as well as regional and national needs.

Information on the Namibian Islands' Marine Protected Area:

Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia, No. 4210 of 16 February 2009. Declaration of the Namibian islands as marine reserve: Marine Resources Act, 2000(opens in new tab);
Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia, No. 5111 of 31 December 2012. Regulations relating to the Namibian Islands' Marine Protected Area: Marine Resources Act, 2000(opens in new tab).

The NIMPA has also been declared an Ecologically and Biologically Significant marine Area (EBSA), together with six other marine areas within Namibia's exclusive economic zone. Additional information on these EBSAs is available at https://cmr.mandela.ac.za/Research-Projects/EBSA-Portal/Namibia/Namibian-EBSA-Status-Assessment-Management(opens in new tab).

Marine Environment

Namibia's islands

Namibia's 14 islands all lie close to the coast between Walvis Bay and the Orange River mouth. Most of them are little more than wind- and wave-swept isolated rocks that jut out of the Atlantic Ocean. The largest, Possession Island, covers 140 hectares, but most are less than 10 hectares in size. The islands first attracted interest in the early nineteenth century. Merchants, recognising the value of their vast guano reserves, soon stripped the islands of guano and shipped it to Europe where it was used for manufacturing fertiliser and gunpowder.

Although the heyday of guano mining was between the 1840s to 1860s, it continued well into the twentieth century. On Halifax Island, the removal of the guano in the 1930s was devastating to African penguins that had nested in burrows in the thick guano. In recent years there has been a small recovery with several thousand birds living on the island, however, they were again severely impacted in 2018/19 by an outbreak of bird flu.

The birds and marine life surrounding these islands now enjoy greater protection following the proclamation in 2008 of the Namibian Islands' Marine Protected Area. Formal regulations pertaining to each island were gazetted in December 2012.

Namibia's seabirds

The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) is used by around 82 seabird species, of which seven are endemic to it and 16 species that breed within the BCLME. Additionally at least 4.4 million birds of c. 66 other species (excluding rare vagrants) migrate to or through the BCLME. Non-breeding migrants may remain within the BCLME year round.

Eggs and guano of formerly abundant seabirds were heavily harvested in the 19th and 20th centuries but decreases in seabird populations led to cessation of these industries at islands. Guano is still scraped from platforms. Seabird ecotourism has grown.

There have been large recent decreases in numbers of African Penguin Spheniscus demersus, Cape Gannet Morus capensis and Cape Phalacrocorax capensis and Bank P. neglectus Cormorants and redistributions of other species away from the centre of the Benguela ecosystem towards its northern or eastern boundaries.

In 2020, seabirds endemic to the Benguela ecosystem and albatrosses and petrels migrating into it had high proportions of globally Near Threatened or Threatened species. The primary threat to four Endangered endemic birds is scarcity of forage resources. A Vulnerable endemic - Damara tern - is susceptible to habitat degradation and disturbance. The principal threat to visiting albatrosses and petrels is by-catch mortality.

Identification and effective protection of Important Bird Area breeding and marine foraging and aggregation sites, and a suite of complementary measures, are needed to conserve the seabirds and ensure continuation of their economic and ecosystem benefits into the future.

From: Seabirds of the Benguela Ecosystem: Utilisation, Long-Term Changes and Challenges. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96326(opens in new tab)