Tag Archives: climate change

Penguin population depletion may be due to whales and weather!

Information about the rapid depletion of the penguin population has been found in reports in the past week.  Penguin numbers appear to be reducing rapidly both in Cape Town as well as internationally.

The China Post reported that the African Penguin numbers have been reducing by 60% in the last seven years, with only 26000 pairs left, the lowest count ever.   At the beginning of this century 2 million penguins were counted.   Last year the African Penguins, the species found locally, were classified as an endangered species.  It is understood that a shortage of food due to changing fish patterns and greater commercial fishing of sardines and anchovies are the reasons for the declining penguin numbers.  The South African Department of Environmental Affairs has found that the migration path of sardines has moved by 600 km, too far a distance for penguins to get to.

National Geographic News reported earlier this month that the Chinstrap and Adélie penguin populations in the West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea have reduced by 50% in the past thirty years.   Fisheries biologists studying the penguin population have found that a shortage of krill, which is the major food eaten by penguins, is to blame, the young penguins being unable to survive their first winter due to a shortage of finding krill.  Since 1970 the number of penguin chicks surviving has dropped from 50% to only 10%.  The quantity of krill has declined by 80 % in the past twenty years, a direct correlation with the decline in penguin numbers. 

Krill production itself has been affected by climate change, with warmer water temperature by 5-6°C,  affecting the supply of phytoplankton, required for krill to survive.  Krill is also the mainstay of the diet of whales, and whale numbers have increased due to greater controls over whaling by bodies such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.  This has exacerbated the reduction in krill.

It would appear that penguins used to eat fish before they started eating krill.  Given the shortage of krill, Wayne Z. Trivelpiece of the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla, California, has expressed surprise that penguins have not reverted back to eating fish in the face of the krill shortage.  

The declining penguin population is of concern, in that scientists use penguin numbers as a predictor for problems in the oceans.  It is hoped that nature will find a way to help the penguins find food, to regrow the penguin populations, before they become extinct.  Birdlife International has called for greater research into climate change and its effect on penguin populations, as well as the declaration of no-fishing zones around penguin island colonies.  “It’s bigger than the penguins.  It’s about the health of our marine ecosystem.  A lot of focus is on the penguins but at the end of the day it’s about the ecosystem.  The marine ecosystem is taking strain and the penguins are just really telling a part of the story”,  said Venessa Strauss of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

The penguin population at Boulder’s Beach in Simonstown is an important tourist attraction for Cape Town. The declining penguin population could have a negative impact on the future of an important Cape Town tourism asset. 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Social Media vital tourism communication and information source, also for Cape Town

Social Media marketing is one of the most important means of communication with potential tourists, in planning their trips, and these media are also used by them to share their holiday information experiences during and after their holidays.   This is one of the trends that Cape Town Tourism reported on its return from the “Future Day” Convention held in Berlin last week, running in conjunction with ITB (Internationale Tourismusbörse), the world’s largest travel trade fair.

The internet in general is the most important source of travel information, with 95 % of travellers searching for information on-line, and more than half booking on-line, up by 10 percentage points from 45 % in just two years.   In the USA just more than half of travellers use social media to research travel destinations and to make online bookings.  Travel tips from friends, interactive bookings and mobile travel guides are some of the social media travel applications that influence travel by travellers.  

Mobile phones play a vital part in this travel communication, because they are easily portable and accessible, unlike laptops, which are dependent on wifi access.   While on holiday or on a business trip, travellers can use their iPhones, Blackberries and other phones to find and share information about the destination.   With large increases in tourists coming from Asian countries, and China in particular (46 million travellers in 2010, and 155 million mobile Internet subscribers), and another 127 million in India, it is vital that tourism destinations such as Cape Town reach tourists via mobile phones, and smart phones in particular.   The World Travel Monitor has found that 40 % of international travellers travel with a smart  phone with internet, e-mail and other functions, with the balance holding a conventional mobile phone.   Of the smart phone users, 40 % use them to obtain destination information, and 26 % of leisure travellers and 34% of business travellers use them to change bookings while travelling.   Just more than a third of international travellers use their smart phones to access mobile social networks.   This leads to tourists posting content to their Facebook pages or Blogs, or photographs on Twitter or Flickr, whilst they are still at the destination.   In future it is likely to see that photographs and information posted will have GPS information, with screens providing travel information.

The travel and tourism trends which Cape Town Tourism brought back from ITB are the following:

*   Globalisation, demographic change and climate change are the three most important trends affecting tourism.  Climate change has created a moral debate amongst travellers about the effect of a long haul flight to a city like Cape Town on the carbon footprint, a potential threat to tourism to our country, if the local tourism industry cannot find ways to communicate to these travellers how they can offset their long-haul travel whilst in the country.  The Convention predicted that “individual carbon budgets could be in the pipeline”.  

*   The largest tourism growth has come from Asia and South America.   This year international travel is expected to grow by 3 – 4 %.  Cape Town Tourism is confident about the benefit of the massive Asian travel market, and our suitable weather in the low season to accommodate these travellers.  

*   Tourism marketing is no longer about the destination, but about the customer.  The traveller can be segmented as follows:

    *   the “too busy to care” traveller, who can not be bothered to give destination or product feedback

    *   Travellers leading complex lives and whose finances are under pressure, working harder and their leisure time reducing.

    *   Travellers looking for simplicity and a return to basics.   Their mantra is : “Slow living, slow food and slow travel”

    *   Wealthy travellers are harder to please, and set higher demands from the destinations they visit. 

*   Sustainability is now vital, and no longer a ‘nice to have’.  All elements in the tourism cycle need to be environmentally sustainable.

*   Despite an improvement in the economic well-being of the world since the recession struck three years ago, tourists are still being careful with their money.  Tourism spend is expected to increase by 7 % this year.  

*   The tourism businesses that can understand what makes their “customers tick” will be the ones that will “lead the way to prosperity”.

*   Neuromarketing is the new ‘science’ of communication, and is a recognition that up to 95 % of all decisions are made subconsciously.   Marketing communication is moving toward imagery and language that can influence the subconscious decision-making of travellers.   Four types of customers are identified:

   *   The Economical Customer relates to data, facts and efficiency

   *   The Relationship Customer relates to harmony, partnership, trust and a personal approach

   *   The Trendsetter Customer relates to opportunities, gut feeling and creativity

   *   The Exclusive Customer relates to aesthetics, quality and vision.

*   Finally, the ability to communicate in an instant is the “most interesting innovation in tourism marketing”, writes Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold.   Social Media is the communication tool which allows information to be personalised to travellers, and shared with them instantly.

To market a city brand such a Cape Town effectively, it must be authentic, it must appeal to locals first, it must have emotional pull, and must have real stories to tell, said Mrs Helmbold.   She also said that travellers spend the most time of their holiday experience in the “planning and memory phase of their holidays and sharing their experiences now takes place on Facebook and Twitter”, the holiday album becoming something of the past.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:  www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Life’s a Blue Flag Beach! Western Cape beaches best

For the tenth year running South African beaches have been evaluated, and 15 beaches in the Western Cape, and five in Cape Town alone, have been awarded Blue Flag status, reports Southern African Tourism Update.  In total 27 beaches have been awarded Blue Flag status around the country, meaning that the Western Cape has the cleanest beaches in general in the country, an excellent benefit for tourism.   Another 14 beaches are ‘bubbling under’, working on their Blue Flag status for next year. 

Ten years ago only three South African beaches were awarded Blue Flag status.   South Africa is the only country outside of Europe to have its beaches tested for quality.   This ensures that locals as well as tourists can be guaranteed world-class beaches and facilities, being safe, clean and well-managed.   Climate change is affecting the quality of beaches and its facilities, and municipalities are commended for spending scarce financial resources to rehabilitate these beaches in order to meet and maintain the Blue Flag standards.     

The 27 Blue Flag beaches are the following:

MacDougall’s Bay, Port Nolloth  
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Yzerfontein Main beach, Yzerfontein 
Clifton 4th beach, Cape Town 
Camps Bay, Cape Town    
Muizenberg, Cape Town    
Strandfontein beach, Cape Town  
Mnandi beach, Cape Town    
Bikini beach, Gordon’s Bay   
Kleinmond beach, near Hermanus   
Hawston beach, near Hermanus   
Grotto beach, Hermanus    
Lappiesbaai, Stilbaai, Southern Cape
Witsand at the mouth of the Breede River  
Santos beach, Mossel Bay   
Hartenbos beach, Mossel Bay
Robberg 5 beach, Plettenberg Bay  
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Dolphin beach, Jeffrey’s Bay  
Humewood beach, Port Elizabeth 
Wells Estate, north of Port Elizabeth  
Kelly’s beach, Port Alfred    
Kariega Main beach, Kenton-on-Sea 
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Umzumbe (Pumula) on the south coast KZN (new)
Lucien beach near Margate (back)
Trafalgar beach, south coast KZN 
Marina beach, south coast KZN  
Ramsgate beach, near Margate  
Margate beach 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:  www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Food News: It’s ‘OK’ to eat meat, says ecologist!

A new book, called “Meat: A Benign Extravagance”, by ecologist Simon Fairlie, has turned around current thinking about the effect of meat production on the carbon footprint, and argues for the benefits of meat production, reports the Cape Argus.

Fairlie says that farming with and eating meat “is OK”, and in fact benefits the planet.  He explains that for 30 years the generally accepted view has been that meat-eating is bad for the planet in terms of climate change, and bad for the human race, having led key climate change authorities to propose vegetarianism as a means of solving the planet’s climate problems.

If one follows a vegetarian lifestyle, one has to obtain proteins and fats, in the form of soya, peanut butter, nuts and pulses, impacting on the carbon footprint, whilst fats and proteins could come from farms closer by, with a lesser impact on the environment, he says.   He further argues that the original 1:10 conversion ratio of 10 kg of grain is required to produce 1 kg of beef is an outdated statistic from more than 200 years ago, being closer to 1:7.   For every 1,4 kg of vegetables that one could eat, 1 kg of beef can be produced on a small farm.  Fairlie also argues that humans cannot eat grass, and that cows are an efficient means of ‘transforming’ grass into products that they can eat: milk, butter and cheese.   In addition, they produce natural nutrients in the form of manure, which goes back into nature.

Fairlie is critical of  battery chicken farming and of large-scale cattle production, calling it a “moral and environmental disaster”.   He says that we eat too much meat, because it is so cheap.   He calls for all farming to be organic, and for the government to prevent supermarkets from taking an ever greater cut of the food production cost.

His personal lifestyle includes eating meat twice a week only.  He advocates eating offal, and eating smaller portions of meat.  “Eat local, eat less, is my recipe” he says.  “Support your small farmer.  You’ll enjoy the meat more too”.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage