Acorn girl
- Authors: Kukard, Gina
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South African fiction (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96969 , vital:31382
- Description: My thesis encapsulates a coming-of-age novella told through short vignettes of flash fiction and prose poetry. It makes use of the distillation and fragmentation of these forms to explore themes such as the nature of violation, and works between genres to engage the tension between inner and outer realities, and the blurred lines between passivity and resistance. Moving fluidly between memoir and fiction and set in modern day South Africa, it draws inspiration from both my own experiences and the writing of others, especially Raul Zurita’s resistance poetry in Dreams for Kurosawa, Claudia Rankine’s subtle absurdity in Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, bizarro elements as seen in Athena Villaverde’s The Clockwork Girl and the use of physicality to explore the emotional world, as seen in Shelley Jackson’s The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Occurrence, feeding ecology, and population structure of two dolphin species, Tursiops aduncus and Delphinus delphis, off the Wild Coast of South Africa
- Authors: Caputo, Michelle Anne
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Delphinus -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Ecology , Tursoops -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Ecology , Delphinus -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Feeding and feeds , Tursoops -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Feeding and feeds , Dolphins -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal , Delphinus -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Behavior , Tursoops -- South Africa-- Kwazulu-Natal -- Behavior , Marine ecology -- South Africa -- Kwazulu-Natal
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115612 , vital:34197
- Description: Dolphins are apex predators and their movements, foraging activities and population dynamics play an important role in shaping their environment. Understanding their occurrence, movement patterns, and trophic ecology is essential to their conservation, especially as they are considered sentinel species. The Wild Coast of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, is characterized by the annual sardine (Sardinops sagax) run, which serves as an important foraging event for apex predators, including Indo-Pacific bottlenose (Tursiops aduncus) and long-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). Despite the ecological significance of this event, no dedicated surveys for these species have previously been conducted in this area. The main objectives of this research were to: investigate long-term occurrence of dolphins during the sardine run to determine if there have been any changes over the past 19 years, as has been predicted from common dolphin dietary investigations and anecdotal evidence; to determine short-term occurrence and movement patterns of selected inshore delphinids within the area, which is characterized by three marine protected areas (MPAs); and to use stable isotope analyses to determine trophic relationships and population structure of bottlenose and common dolphins within the region. Long-term data consisted of 131 opportunistic aerial surveys conducted between May and July over the period 1996 to 2014. Results from these surveys indicate that common dolphins, typically associated with sardines, decreased significantly in average group size over the study period (p=0.0343). Bottlenose dolphins, demonstrated no such trend (p=0.916). For both species, greater majority (> 70% of total counts) of sightings were made inside the MPAs. Short-term boat-based surveys were conducted three times a year between June 2014 and December 2016, contributing to a total of 47 days of surveys divided into three locations: Amathole, Hluleka, and Pondoland, each containing a MPA. Density and group size data were analyzed for both species and photographic identification analysis was performed for photographs of bottlenose dolphin dorsal fins. Results indicate that animal and sighting density did not differ temporally (bottlenose dolphin: sighting density – p=0.398, individual density –p=0.781; common dolphin: sighting density –p=0.472, individual density – p=0.204). Environmental factors (sea surface temperature, depth, substrate, and distance from shore) appeared to have limited effect on individual and sighting density and group size for both species (p>0.05). Photographic identification of bottlenose dolphins resulted in 2149 individuals, with a 11.8% resighting rate, with the highest resighting rate within the Pondoland MPA (16.1%). The resighting count did not differ temporally between monthly survey based on generalized linear models (p=0.866), but did differ between study areas (p<0.0001). These results provide the first evidence of the occurrence of both species of dolphin off the Wild Coast, as they were sighted in this region in all survey months. There was no trend in density based on temporal or environmental factors, which suggests other factors are influencing their occurrence. Resightings of bottlenose dolphins within the area suggest that there is some degree of residency, though the majority of animals were only sighted on a single occasion and there was no plateau in the discovery curve. A total of 256 biopsy samples (bottlenose dolphins =128; common dolphins=128) were collected during boat-based surveys. Bottlenose dolphin samples were also collected from adjacent areas to the southwest (Algoa Bay, n=22) and northeast (KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), n=20) of the Wild Coast to investigate similarities and differences between these areas. Despite a high degree of niche overlap between the two species (41%), common dolphins fed with a broader niche (standard ellipse area probability 0.89) than bottlenose dolphins in the summer and a narrower niche in the winter (probability 0.94). There was a clear spatial variation in the diet of bottlenose dolphins along the coast, with individuals from Algoa Bay and Amathole demonstrating 0% niche overlap with individuals from KZN, but the mechanism for these differences remains unclear as other species from South African waters demonstrate a strong southwest to northeast gradient in nitrogen for the Eastern Cape coastline. This research provides valuable baseline information regarding dolphins off the Wild Coast of South Africa, which remained largely unknown. My results indicate that bottlenose dolphins may be more resident in the Wild Coast than previous predicted, and confirm that common dolphins are highly mobile in this area.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Towards a norm of compliance in recreational fisheries
- Authors: Bova, Christopher S
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Fishing -- Management -- South Africa , Fishery law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95909 , vital:31213
- Description: The activity of fishing can be traced back to prehistoric times. However, only in the last century has there been a focus on the management of fisheries. Fishery regulations are tools used by resource managers with the aim of protecting the long-term sustainability of fishery resources. Although there is an overwhelming amount of evidence demonstrating the decline of fisheries, non-compliance with these regulations by fishers continues to manifest, which can exacerbate the negative ecological impacts of fisheries. Popular methods towards the measurement of noncompliance in fisheries derived from previous human dimensions literature may be flawed. Theories on improving compliance behaviour have typically relied on theory, which has at times proved paradoxical. Addressing the issues of non-compliance within a fishery of interest requires measuring the levels of non-compliance within the fishery and determining the relevant sociopsychological drivers behind the non-compliant behaviour. The data collection methods used during these assessments are limited in human dimensions research and are often case and context specific, requiring researchers to identify which approach is most practical for the specific fishery of interest. By identifying relevant behavioural drivers of non-compliance, a more effective approach aimed at improving compliance can be tailored. The recreational marine-based shore fishery (MBSF) in South Africa is not impervious to noncomplaint behaviour. In fact, it has been estimated to have relatively high rates of non-compliance. This high level of non-compliance makes the South African MBSF a unique and optimal context in which to undertake research that aims to formulate a framework towards compliance assessments and that develops a suitable approach for improving compliance rates. Using surveys to obtain compliance data can provide a range of details about violators, however they are susceptible to social desirability bias (SDB). Choosing the best method for controlling SDB required an assessment of existing methods for doing so. In this first part of the study, only fishers who were covertly observed breaking the rules were surveyed, using one of three methods for reducing SDB, to ground-truth the responses. Ground-truthing was done to determine which method would be most effective for a large-scale study within the same fishery. Of the methods used, which include the direct questioning method (DQM), the random response technique (RRT) and the ballot box method (BBM), all contained some level of SDB. However, the BBM provided a significantly higher level of response accuracy (79.6% ± 11.9) than the DQM (46.5% ± 14.9) and the RRT (44.3% ± 12.5). Random-stratified roving creel compliance surveys that employed the BBM were then undertaken at various locations along South Africa’s coastline to estimate current rates of non-compliance, and the face-to-face results were compared to results from an identical online survey to determine the suitability of online surveys as a replacement. The results indicated that online surveys only represent a subgroup of the fisher population within the MBSF, suggesting that face-to-face survey methods are required to obtain a more comprehensive sample and a more robust estimate of noncompliance. The results, based on 453 face-to-face surveys, showed a high level of overall self-reported noncompliance (48.3%) within the fishery. Responses to Likert scale survey questions on various aspects of the fishery, including angler motivations for fishing, were then modelled to test the relationship between the anglers’ responses and their compliance behaviour. In the South African MBSF context, the most significant behavioural drivers behind non-compliance related to normative concepts. Specifically, the poor perceptions of management and value-based legitimacy as well as low levels of moral obligation to adhere to the regulations appeared to contribute most to the observed non-compliant behaviour. Angler motivations for fishing also played a significant role in determining the compliance behaviour of anglers, with those fishing for food being more likely to violate regulations. In most countries, regardless of economic context, interventions to improve recreational fishery compliance have been developed around the instrumental concept. However, these findings suggest that for recreational fisheries, managers would do well to evaluate the impact of normative concepts on compliance and to design interventions aimed at addressing these. In the case of the South African MBSF, interventions that address angler perceptions of legitimacy and aim to correct misperceptions about social norms of compliance may provide a more practical and cost- effective method for improving poor compliance behaviour.
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- Date Issued: 2019