Off-Roads on the beach

Those were the days... when we were allowed to drive onto the beach...! How can you describe that feeling of anticipation when you wake up before sunrise and with first light you are already on the hard sand between the ebb and flow marks, on your way to your favourite fishing spot!  Your bakkie engulfed in the morning mist and the sea, left of you, is daring you in its thundering voice to try and catch one of hers! Those were the days when friend Gerrit Visser and I went out crossing the dunes north of Dwarskersbos, looking for galjoen. And it was the only way to get to the legendary fishing spot "Die Walle" in Struis Bay...

The day the Minister of Environment, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, closed the beaches to vehicles, I was one of the very unhappy guys! You see, fishermen were blamed for the damage to the beaches and dunes, while I have yet to see a true fisherman willfully destroy or damage something on our coasts. True fishermen are to busy tending to their addiction to have time to do something else... Fishermen wake up with fish fever, and it only ceases when you hook the first bait for the day! Nobody is going to waste time ruining dunes first! Quite the opposite - I have many a time found a marker for a nest of a Black Oystercatcher - marked by fishermen. All and every other fisherman will take a wide berth, to use nautical terms.

But, the honest truth is, unwittingly and unwillingly one did do damage. A lot of damage! And then we're not even mentioning those yuppies who have the urge to show off their vehicles in spite of the damage and destruction. As long as they can enjoy themselves, they do not care about anything else. And for this reason - in hindsight - the closing of our beaches were the best thing to do. 

Dunes are the buffers against high seas and protect the areas behind them against surf erosion and saltwater intrusion, therefor they play an important role in the ecology of sand beaches. The fore-dunes are also a natural sand reserve, supplying sand for the beaches when erosion takes place. The dunes sustain immense damage when people go driving over them, it can even lead to dune breaches and the destruction of the protective buffer.  The vegetation on the dunes are also very sensitive to any disturbances.  The destruction of dune and vegetation leads in turn to the destroying of habitats for earthworms, insects, spiders, lizards and small mammals. It takes years before the dune-beach ecosystem  recover completely after a yuppie - just for kicks - drove around the dunes like a maniac. 

Many sea birds like oystercatchers, terns and plovers breed in the fore-dune area.  Apart from the danger of crushing the eggs and chicks, off-road vehicles can disturb the adult birds from the nest threatening the survival of the young.  The Damara Tern and African Black Oystercatcher are listed as threatened species and can ill afford this added pressure.

Furthermore our west coast boasts many historically important shell-middens in the dunes. To drive across these will cause bone fragments used as tools, sea shell beads and pendants, pottery fragments and other clues as to how the first inhabitants on our coasts lived, to be destroyed. 

The inter-tidal zone, the area between the high- and low-water marks, is fairly resistant to the impact of off road vehicles, although the soft sand close to the drift line is easily compacted, crushing small animals on and below the sand surface.

In marshland areas off road vehicles can easily and quickly destroy the sensitive salt-marsh vegetation and crabs, shrimps, fish and birds will be left without habitat.  A lot of burrowing organisms of the inter-tidal sand- and mudflats, like prawns and worms are crushed under the tyres. The tyres compact the loose sand so tightly that young plants and small animals have trouble settling in.

Enough reason to keep off road vehicles off the dunes and beaches? I thinks so.  The Policy, which was promulgated in terms of the Environment Conservation Act (no. 73 of 1989) in the Government Gazette on 29 April 1994, stipulates that recreational use of off-road vehicles must in principle be excluded from the coastal zone.  Specific demarcated areas are identified where controlled access by vehicles may be allowed subject to the conditions of a permit.

Despite much public outcry, within a year of the banning of 4x4 driving on beaches, the African Black Oystercatchers breeding success increased significantly. Where there were only 4500 of these birds left in the mid 1980`s, their number has increased to 6700 birds today.

And this is enough reason for me to keep my off-road vehicle off the beaches and dunes.  These days I just wake up earlier and hike to my favourite fishing spot!