In December 1968, Geoff Fridgeon posed for a picture holding a white musselcracker he had speared off Dalebrook beach. A fish this size would have been close to thirty years old. Forty-six years later he stands in the same spot posing with an enlargement of the picture. Today, reef fishes of this size and age have all but disappeared from the bay, and the white musselcracker is near threatened with extinction.
With a growing network of marine protected areas, a new generation of South Africans like nine-year-old Laila Ntlantlu will hopefully see a return of the country’s iconic reef fishes to healthy numbers.
