Science Alone Won’t Do It! South Africa’s Endangered Humpback Dolphins Sousa plumbea Face Complex Conservation Challenges

The Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) is “endangered” with likely less than 500 animals remaining in South African waters. Established in 2016, the SouSA Consortium is a formalised network of scientists and conservationists to combine knowledge and research efforts, and make coordinated decisions with the aim of conserving the species. The first collaborative project collated available photo-identification data in an attempt to refine a national population estimate and investigate movements between research sites. This work was able to identify 250 uniquely marked individuals, with the population divided into the south-coast (Agulhas bioregion) and east-coast (Natal bioregion) populations. Environmental factors almost certainly play a role in the declining numbers of the species in South African waters. However, individual threats and solutions are challenging to identify as the South African marine environment is undergoing significant natural and anthropogenic changes with major shifts in the distribution and numbers of some prey, competitor and predator species. Therefore, we believe that a continued investigation of potential contributing factors and their interaction will take too long, inevitably resulting in another case of documenting extinction. With this in mind, we present the results of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis in an effort to help us identify the next steps to take toward the conservation of humpback dolphins in South African waters. We unanimously conclude that no single cause for the rapid decline of humpback dolphins in South African waters can be identified, and that the cumulative effects of multiple stressors, which are difficult to pinpoint and mitigate, are impacting population numbers. While highlighting the need for continued research, we suggest a shift toward more action-focused conservation efforts, the first concrete steps being the development of a Conservation Management Plan with input from other stakeholders.

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Crustacea

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London ◽

10.1098/rstl.1879.0051 ◽

1879 ◽

Vol 168 ◽

pp. 485-496 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

South African ◽

Eastern Coast ◽

Special Study ◽

The South ◽

East African ◽

East African Coast ◽

African Coast ◽

The Indian Ocean ◽

The Subject

The Crustacea collected by Messrs. G. Gulliver and H. H. Slater amount in all to 189 specimens, representing 35 species. All of these are forms that are widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific or Oriental Region (which includes the eastern coast of Africa, the south and east of Asia and islands adjacent, Australia, and the islands of Polynesia), with the following exceptions:— Atergatopsis signatus (hitherto only known from the Mauritius), Caridina typus (original locality not known), Palœmon dispar (hitherto recorded only from the Malayan Archipelago), Palœmon hirtimanus (from Mauritius, Réunion, and the Indian Ocean), P. debilis (from Amboina and the Sandwich Islands), and the new species of Talitrus ( T. gulliver i), which is described below. With two exceptions all the species in the collection belong to the Podophthalmia . The following are the sub-tribes represented, with the number of species belonging to each :— The Crustacea inhabiting the Red Sea have been made the subject of special study by Rüppell and Heller, those of Madagascar and the islands adjacent by Hoffmann, of Mauritius and Réunion by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, and of the South African coast by M’Leay and Krauss. Valuable additions to our knowledge of the Crustacea of the East African coast have been published by Hilgendorf, in Van der Decken’s “Reisen in Ost-Afrika,” where will also be found a conspectus of all the known species of East African Crustacea by Von Martens. So far as I am aware, however, no species have hitherto been recorded as inhabiting the Island of Rodriguez.

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Establishing The Challenges Affecting South African SMEs

International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) ◽

10.19030/iber.v12i6.7869 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 707 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Michael C. Cant ◽

Johannes A. Wiid

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Failure Rate ◽

Environmental Variables ◽

Vital Role ◽

High Failure Rate ◽

The South ◽

Contributing Factors

Cant andLigthelm (2003) estimate that 70-80 percent of SMEs fail. A number of elements and challenges have beenidentified as contributing factors to the high failure rate of SMEs in SouthAfrica. The research investigates theextent to which the identified variables affect South African SMEs. The objective of this paper is to determine towhat extent SMEs experience selected challenges or issues that negativelyinfluence the success of the business. Challengesand issues include exogenous macro environmental variables and endogenousenvironmental variables, namely marketing. A questionnaire was constructed and judgementsampling was used to gather the responses of 81 SMEs. The research identified inflation and interestrates, crime and unemployment, low demand for products, the wrong pricing strategiesimplemented and the location of the business to be the major problemsexperienced by SMEs. The challenge nowis to improve the skills and capabilities of SMEs to ensure their success asthey play a vital role in the South African economy.

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So Close Yet So Far: Perspectives on the South African Police Service’s Response to Murder Cases in the Wallacedene Policing Area

Technium Social Sciences Journal ◽

10.47577/tssj.v26i1.4939 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 409-423

Author(s):

Nthabiseng Patricia Tsoho ◽

Jacob Tseko Mofokeng ◽

Khosa Dorcas

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

South African ◽

Current Problem ◽

Qualitative Approach ◽

Data Collection Tool ◽

The South ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Conviction Rate ◽

South African Police

The aim of this study was to determine views of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) response to murder cases in the Wallacedene policing area; the contributing factors that lead to the failure of the police to prosecute offenders; the effectiveness of strategies to reduce murder-related incidents in the study area; the contributing factors to murder in the Wallacedene policing area; and to make recommendations to improve the conviction rate. Twenty-five participants were selected for this study. A qualitative approach was used, with semi-structured interviews as the data-collection tool. The findings highlighted that there is a lack of partnership between SAPS detectives and the community. The contributing factors for the police to fail prosecuting offenders. Reasons for the current problem include inexperienced detectives and lack of resources. In order to increase the performance of the detectives and the first responders to the scene, the research explored the challenges encountered by the SAPS detectives and makes suggestions and recommendations to increase their efficiency.

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The impact of non-unionised participation platforms on employee productivity in the South African workplace

Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences ◽

10.4102/jef.v9i1.31 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 93-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gerhardus Van Zyl

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Dynamic Characteristics ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Employee Productivity ◽

The South ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Function Model ◽

Log Linear ◽

The Impact ◽

Douglas Production Function

The aim of the article is to determine the impact that different participation platforms might have on employee productivity levels of the lower-skilled non-unionised employee segment of the South African workplace. A firm-based dynamic log-linear Cobb-Douglas production function model is used as it allows for the incorporation of the dynamic characteristics of the non-unionised employee segment of the South African workplace. The main conclusions of the study are that, i) the positive productivity spill-over effects of a formal committee participation platform in the lower-skilled non-unionised employee segment of the South African workplace are superior to non-committee participation platforms and, ii) a more dispersed racial participation rate, greater gender spread and a dynamic age spread for non-unionised employees are important contributing factors towards the enhancement of higher productivity levels for lower-skilled non-unionised employee participation platforms.

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