T The Saldanha State of the Bay monitoring programme is designed to provide an annual assessment of the state of Saldanha Bay, Langebaan Bay and surrounding ecosystems.
- Direct monitoring of a number of important ecosystem indicators was initiated by the SBWQFT in 1999, including water quality (faecal coliform, temperature, oxygen and pH), sediment quality (trace metals, hydrocarbons, total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrogen) and benthic macrofauna.
- The range of parameters monitored has expanded since then to include surf zone fish and rocky intertidal macrofauna (both initiated in 2005) and led to the commissioning of a “State of the Bay” technical report series in 2006.
A detailed State of the Bay report is produced every year that summarises all available data and information on:
- Activities and discharges affecting the health of the Bay (residential and industrial development, dredging, coastal erosion, shipping, and sewage and other wastewaters, and fish effort),
- Water quality in the Bay itself (temperature, oxygen, salinity, nutrients, and pH),
- Sediment quality (particle size, trace metal and hydrocarbon.
- As well as Ground Water, Benthic Macrofauna, Rocky Shore, Fish, Birds and Alien Species
A Anchor Environmental is an independent consulting firm based in Cape Town, South Africa. They offer ecological and economic expertise to inform management and decision making regarding the use and conservation of natural resources.
Anchor has conducted the “State of the Bay” Monitoring programme for Saldanha Bay and Langebaan Lagoon annually since 2008.
These reports presents data on parameters monitored directly by the SBWQFT as well as those monitored by others (government, private industry, academic establishments and NGOs).
Their main areas of interest are biodiversity and ecology, hydrological and oceanographic monitoring, ecosystem services, socio-economic studies, environmental and resource economics, conservation policy, strategy and planning, environmental flows, environmental monitoring and natural resource management problems in general.
The staff are associates of the University of Cape Town and have produced more than 200 technical reports and have published over 75 scientific papers and regularly participate in international conferences.
