Indigionous aquatic plants - I am very frustrated now!

A time ago I posted a thread on an indigenous species. From that time I asked myself the legality of keeping an indigenous aquatic species in my tank or even propagating and distribution of it legally.

The people of South Africa are encouraged to plant indigenous trees and other plants in their gardens - even the Waterblommetjie is advertised openly as an indigenous alternative for exotics in your pond.

After spending hours on the net I could not find anything on a specific species regarding it's conservation level or their threatened status.

If someone can lead me to a list or website I would appreciate it.

On the net their are not much information on any of our indigenous aquatic species.

Any help will be appreciated.

Lennard

 

You are not allowed to collect any native/indigenous animals/plants from the wild without a permit. Best is to phone your local conservation body and ask them for an application. The department of Environmental affairs will also be able to help.

 

You can buy indigenous aquatic plants from The Random Harvest nursery. http://www.randomharvestnursery.co.za.
The PlantZAfrica website has a wealth of info on indigenous plants. http://www.plantzafrica.com. I see they've even fixed their search, so that makes it a lot easier to find aquatic plants specifically.

Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the reply.

I am going to see the local conservation guy this Friday. They want a list of the specific species I want to collect and a lot of other information.

If I get a permit I will scan it and describe the whole process and rules if other people want to do the same.

Lennard

 

Thanks for the links.

I have already explored those sites and they do not have much information on the species I am looking for. I have researched that none of the species I am looking for is on the endangered list.

But thanks anyway.

Lennard

 

Thanks, that will be great!

 

I think this is the right way to go because there are so little information on indigenous species. If the underwater plants can be utilized in a responsible way, instead of a lot of the exotics, it would only be to the benefit of our indigenous plants. As with any other species it is not the collectors endangering the species but the destroying of their habitats. It is my personal believe that most plant species(like our indigenous orchids) will survive in collections and not in the natural habitat.

One of the indigenous species I have is an incredible oxygenater?, but I will only reveal it's name as soon as I can get the permit.

Lennard

 

if i remember correctly there is some book out there on the indigenous aquatic plants of SA. Ask the prof - he might have the name and ISBN number.

 

Do we get a prize for guessing right? I'll go first ........ Typha capensis - LOL

 

On the annual recreational fishing permit that you get from the post office, there is a specific section for this:

TYPE OF PERMIT REQUIRED
#9 Molluscs, which excludes Abalone, but including octopus and Squid: Worms and other Invertebrate and Aquatic Plants.

If you live in KwaZulu-Natal no more than 10kg of Aquatic Plants shall be collected per day.

So as long as the the plants and invertebrates ( which include local freshwater shrimp by the way ) are not on any conservation list, and you are not in a conservation area, you can collect these with a regular fishing permit.

You can collect a license application form from your local post office and see for yourself!

 

Thanks for the information.

I thought those permits were only for fish and other life stuff. I will go and have a look.

Lennard

 

No, the Latin name of the plant starts with a "R".

You have one guess left!

Lennard

 

I find that very interesting as Dirk posted contradicting information to that. I would rather go with what Dirk says....

 

would the different rules for provinces come into effect. Not all provinces have the same ruling.

Sent from my Tablet using Tapatalk

 

No this is a generic permit you can get at any post office. There's various acts that govern local fauna and flora. I would be extremely cautious when removing aquatics plants on the permit you get from the post office.

 

If I recall, that permit does say you need to check that you would need to check with each provincial regulations for final ruling. (Can a fisherman please confirm?)

 

click on the picture to get the full sized readable one...

 

Hmm... so the fishing permit allows you to collect 10kgs of aquatic plants per day (from the wild) and no more than 10 fish per day (from the wild). I do not think this permit would extend to keeping them. I don't know why you would want to consume (through eating or smoking) any aquatic plant... so do not understand why they would allow you to collect the plants. Having said this the term "collect" could be interpreted as collecting with the intention of keeping. (There's no definitions clause to this "contract/permit")

 

as specified under section 4, the collection of fish are marine aquarium fish only. the marine guys do this all the time using this exact permit, regularly interacting with the parks board having their catches inspected etc.

they are allowed to keep their collected fish, so i do not see that the same would not apply to the aquatic plants.

the permit unequivocally states, 10kg's of aquatic plants per person per day may be collected.

 

You are 100% correct @wearsbunnyslippers. My next question is which permit / act supercedes the other. There are Acts (@Henk Hugo will know which ones) that prohibit the collection and keeping altogether, but here's a permit available from your local post office. Does the Act state that you cannot collect without a permit, and then this permit is then seen as the legal permit?