Conservation Problems and Management Options in Estuaries: The Bot River Estuary, South Africa, as a Case-history for Management of Closed Estuaries

Abstract

Closed (or ‘blind’) estuaries are common features, practically throughout the world, of areas experiencing markedly seasonal rainfall. The Bot River vlei is a closed estuary which faces considerable problems of management and conservation. For the past 100 years or more, the estuary has been opened to the sea every 2 to 5 years by artificial means. This has resulted in a very great variability of physical conditions and a concomitantly low diversity of organisms that are able to occupy the estuary permanently. Nevertheless, those species that do exist in the Bot River vlei are mostly estuarine species.