Faunal mass mortalities are a sporadic, but not uncommon, feature of the West
and South coasts of South Africa. Five mass mortalities of West Coast rock
lobsterJasus lalandii, including three of the most
severe ever recorded in South Africa, occurred in the 1990s and resulted in
the stranding of about 2263 tonnes of lobster. The bulk (97%) of the
loss occurred in the last three years of the decade. The five events occurred
within an 80 km stretch of coastline that straddled two fishing zones and
resulted from hypoxic conditions associated with highbiomass dinoflagellate
blooms. In each case, the quantity of lobsters stranded was directly related
to the extent or duration of low-oxygen conditions. Small females constituted
the bulk of the lobster stranded in most events. The lobster fisheries in the
affected fishing zones suffered severe impacts. Recovery in one zone appears
to be extremely slow, whereas the other zone is more resilient. Not only would
a continuation of the trend of increasing frequency and severity of lobster
strandings devastate the rock-lobster fishing industry and the employment
prospects of small fishing communities, but it could also seriously affect the
ecology of the region.
Buried channels provide keys to infer Quaternary stratigraphic and paleo-environmental changes: A case study from the west coast of India