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TOURISM Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has called on the tourism industry to embrace environmental responsibility and to reject the path of eco-destruction for short term gain. Addressing delegates hereat Indaba 2012 in Durban on Saturday evening (May 12 2012), the minister identified the issue as a particular challenge for tourism.

Collegiate Girls High School celebrated Founders day on Friday (11/05/2012). The school is One Hundred and Thirty Eight years old. To make the occasion a memorable one they planned a full weekend of festivities.

NURSING is not a job, it is a calling, says Matron Elizabeth Moss and her own calling has been so strong that after officially retiring, she is helping to open a new ward at the Provincial Hospital.

ANOTHER knife attack has occurred at Arlington Waste Disposal Site. The attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon, comes amid calls by the DA for an investigation into the chaotic state of the site and questionable swopping of contractors.

IT’S one of the iconic wild animals of the metro’s open spaces, but it’s not often seen - certainly not clambering onto the rocks right under your feet. But that was the experience of fishing buddies Gavin Curtis and Stuart Duckenfield who were trying their luck with light tackle and pilchards at Schoenies yesterday (August 10 2011).

SO HOW to communicate the complexity and magnitude of climate change to youngsters from a little school in Zwide? The kids, in grades six and seven at Mzimhlophe Primary School, were given the answer to this question during their visit to the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec) yesterday (August 03 2011).

THE Eastern Cape government has set aside R1.5-million to kick-start an expanded honeybush tea industry that could be ramped up to produce a turnover of R100-million a year and hundreds of new jobs. The good news follows on the results that have emerged from a study of the honeybush industry, commissioned by the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) on behalf of the provincial economic development and environmental affairs department.

NINETEEN stock-theft guards stationed on the top of the Drakensberg have been plucked to safety as heavy snow presses in on their lonely outposts. The guards are housed alone or in pairs in 10 shipping containers, at key points along the Lesotho border with the north-eastern Eastern Cape, in the Rhodes area.

ALGOA Bay is now “the best monitored bay in Africa” with millions of rands worth of equipment installed below the surface measuring a wide range of environmental conditions. That was the proud revelation yesterday (July 28 2011) from SA Environmental Observation Network (Saeon) co-ordinator Shaun Deyzel, who was speaking at a marine science symposium hosted by SA National Parks, at the Addo Elephant National Parks.

PORT Elizabeth based tourism group Mantis Collection has announced a bold expansion into West Africa with a landmark, multi-million US dollar deal signed in PE yesterday (July 25 2011) to roll out a sumptuous suite of boutique hotels in Nigeria. Mantis founder Adrian Gardiner signed the deal at Shamwari Townhouse in Summerstrand with highly respected Nigerian businessman Nze Chidi Duru, who is the chairman of Abuja-based Grand Towers Plc. The Nigerian company has interests in the pension, banking, retail, communications, IT and hospitality sectors.

BILLABONG Pro J-Bay is setting a benchmark for international surfing contests with a comprehensive programme to protect the local environment and combat global climate change.

A SMALL Karoo farmers’ association is so concerned about fracking, and damning new evidence out of the US, it is funding the R10000 bill demanded for a four-day oil and gas conference in Johannesburg, to allow one of its members to attend.

WITH the small waves prevailing yesterday (Sunday July 17 2011) for the Billabong Pro J-Bay, all surfing mojos are focused on the second week of the contest and the swell that, it is hoped, will still set things on fire. The man with un-paralleled expertise in this department is contest director Eric Stedman, 54, who has been scanning synoptic charts, fiddling with barometers and assessing wind direction since he was a grommit back in East London in the 1960s. It also helps that he began surfing Jeffreys Bay 43 years ago.

ALGOA Bay’s first boat-based boat-based whale-watching operation in a decade has been officially launched - and already some exciting sightings are being reported. Lloyd Edwards of Raggy Charters, the company awarded the boat-based whale watching (BBWW) license for Algoa Bay, said yesterday (July 14 2011) he spotted the cow and calf pair of southern right whales off Algorax earlier this week.

THE latest edition of one of the great global surfing contests, built around an iconic right-hand point break, was launched in Jeffreys Bay last night (Wednesday July 14 2011).

HOW many cities in the world can say they get their water from a World Heritage Site? Very few, I bet. Yet, that’s the case with Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and in fact the Gamtoos River Valley vege farmers.

THE biggest baddest pair from Bayworld’s de-commissioned aquarium, two bulky raggedtooth sharks, were released yesterday (July 26 2011) back into the sea. It was a sad day for the oceanarium, where they have lived for nearly two decades, inspiring awe in hundreds of thousands of visitors - but it is good news for the species, as the pair are now part of a research project aimed at securing our waters as one of the few safe havens in the world for raggies.

BUSHY Park Dairy Farm, a flagship “proudly Port Elizabeth” business and a much-loved feature of the metro for the past 20 years, is facing closure. The shock news was confirmed yesterday (June 21 2011) by managing trustee Puffer Hartzenberg, who was responding to unconfirmed reports about the matter.

A UNIQUE study into the abundance, distribution and movement of great white sharks in Algoa Bay, sponsored by the metro, has been launched. There has never been a fatal shark attack in Algoa Bay, but the metro has committed the R800000 grant as a pro-active step, taken in line with their marketing of Port Elizabeth as “the watersports’ capital of Africa”, researcher Dr Matt Dicken explained yesterday (June 21 2011).

A NEW book aimed at celebrating our natural heritage and guiding sound future conservation policy has been published in Port Elizabeth. Historical Incidence of the Larger Land Mammals in the Broader Western and Northern Cape (including the Eastern Cape as far east as Sundays River) is a complete re-furbishment - with summaries, maps, illustrations and two new chapters - of the original work of the same name by legendary naturalist Dr Jack Skead, who died in 2006.

TWO Karoo farmers have flown out of PE on a ground-breaking mission to the US, to get the low-down on fracking, in the country where it all began.

IF WE CAN link Refit with electrical motorcars - then we could really be onto something. Speaking to The Herald yesterday (June 14 2011), department of environmental affairs deputy-director general for climate change, Peter Lukey, said the scheduled launch this month of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (Refit), will likely lead to significant positive change.

AN UNUSUAL re-forestation and carbon sequestration project is underway in the heart of the old Transkei, where savage erosion is a common feature. The R7600000 project is being run as a partnership between the Congress of Traditional Leaders’ of South Africa (Contralesa), the national department of environmental affairs and a Johannesburg-based company called Carbon Worx.

EASTERN Cape economic environment MEC Mcebisi Jonas yesterday announced significant new green economy investment to boost green economy skills in the province.

FOR world-renowned reptile and amphibian expert Dr Bill Branch, who retired this week from Bayworld after 32 years employment there - it all began in 1969, on the shores of a lake in East Africa.

GOVERNMENT will this month launch the long-awaited Refit programme that will make funding available to pay private energy entrepreneurs who will generate their own green electricity and sell it to the grid.

THE Eastern Cape government has declared its intention to lead from the front in the war against climate change, with a landmark multi-benefit project agreement signed at the Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference in East London yesterday (June 08 2011).

EVERYONE change - a milestone Eastern Cape climate change conference, featuring senior political leaders and climate change experts, is set to start in East London today (Wednesday May 8). The Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference will focus on the strategy document that has been prepared by local role-players, and will look towards the UN’s Cop17 summit, the international climate change indaba in Durban in December

BLACK-out fears notwithstanding, there is more than enough electricity for the megawatt-hungry Coega manganese smelter, according to the Coega Development Corporation (CDC). CDC communications’ chief Senzeni Ndebele was responding this week to concerns expressed about the power demands of the smelter and how this will affect Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality residents and existing businesses.

TWO Motherwell “eco-schools” were the recipients this week of tens of thousands of rands worth of equipment and furniture to help them learn better. The 26 maths and reading software packages, 100 desks and 200 chairs were donated by ABB after the power and automation giant participated last year in a Wessa eco-schools’ workshop in PE.

A STRANGE-looking plume of discoloured water has been appearing sporadically in the bay between Shark Rock Pier and Humewood Beach, resulting in a number of calls from concerned residents, Following an initial report on May 20 by Humewood resident Elize Pretorius, and then disappearing for several days, it reappeared again this week, prompting further calls.

CONCERNS have been raised that the oil and gas exploration rig in Port of Ngqura could be leaking oil into the bay. Both the Norwegian company that owns the ultra-deepwater drilling rig and the harbour authorities have rejected as unfounded the concerns raised by environmental group Ocean Messengers.

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it a comet hurtling to Earth in delayed fulfillment of Harold Campling’s doomsday prophesy? Well, no. In fact, it was the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Endeavour, catching the last rays of the setting sun.

THE Port of Ngqura has become an extraordinary magnet for marine life, and could point the way to an important new role for harbours, according to Bayworld marine biologist and shark specialist Dr Matt Dicken.

THERE are moths and there are moths - and then there is the pine tree emperor, one of the giants of the insect world. Gorgeous yellow in colour and “easily the size of a man’s hand”, one of these moths swooped into a Seaview home the other night.

A SWATHE of critically endangered forest and new generation legislation formulated to combat climate change are at the centre of a confrontation in Deer Park. The forestry department has slammed as “reckless and malicious” the clearing of the area, which is over 100m long by on average 4m wide.

ANGRY residents of the Middleburg area have called for Shell to “get out the Karoo” after the company failed to guarantee the security of their water if fracking goes ahead. Addressing Shell representatives at a hall in Middelburg’s Grootfontein Agricultural College in a hall packed with farmers in T-shirts saying “Don’t Frack with our Karoo,” members of the audience asked repeatedly if the multi-national could “guarantee no risk to our water”.

IT COULD take some farmers in Nieu Bethesda a decade to get back to where they were before the flood that hit them Saturday. That’s the word from the mountainous catchment area north of Graaff-Reinet, where well over 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours, flooding the Gats River and all its tributaries, flattening stock fences, stripping roads to bedrock and bursting farm dams.