Groenvlei carp project faces shift as key roleplayer exits

GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - After seven years of invasive carp removal at Groenvlei Lake, the Invasive Fish Species Management NPC (IFSM) has withdrawn from the project.

The IFSM's Johnny Snyman confirmed it had terminated its operations at the lake within the Goukamma Nature Reserve, citing a collapse in collaboration with Gift of the Givers (GOTG).

The IFSM started the programme in 2018 when it targeted invasive carp in Groenvlei and Island Lake.

According to Snyman, it pioneered operational methods like the development of a bowfishing-based control approach under scientific guidance and exemption permits issued by conservation authorities.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the project expanded to include a community feeding component, with the carp being distributed to soup kitchens and vulnerable households. This was the beginning of the IFSM's collaboration with GOTG.

Over seven years, the IFSM removed more than 40t of carp from the Garden Route. More than 20t was removed by bowfishing.

The IFSM says the split started in 2024, due to the GOTG withdrawing all financial support and equipment without notice and blocking the IFSM's carp distribution through exclusive soup kitchen contracts.

"The GOTG's role was frequently misrepresented or misinterpreted in both traditional and social media outlets, often implying that they spearheaded the entire project.

Snyman says further concern was raised when GOTG was reportedly granted permission to introduce salt lick blocks into Groenvlei.

"NMU CMR, a key scientific stakeholder, formally addressed concerns over GOTG being granted harvesting rights, citing the risk of methodological misuse and the lack of historical involvement in the project," says Snyman.

"The public record now shows that the very programme developed and operated by the IFSM has effectively been adopted and rebranded by another organisation, without acknowledgement of the foundational groundwork laid since 2018," says Snyman.

"Has Groenvlei Lake become a mere funding platform for larger NGOs? Or will those now occupying the stage be able to match the IFSM's professionalism, transparency and seven years of unmatched success in invasive carp management?"

Some of the carp that were removed from Groenvlei by the IFSM, with some of its team members in the background. Photos: IFSM's Facebook page

The GOTG says it became involved in the project to feed the hungry. According to the organisation's Mario Ferreira, its role focused on the testing, processing and distribution of carp for human consumption, with laboratory testing conducted to meet Department of Health requirements.

Ferreira says the IFSM functioned as a service provider compensated for the fish supplied for distribution.

"Their role was purely to provide fish to us for distribution. During the first month of service, the IFSM made use of its own bows to capture these fish, as well as a boat provided by CapeNature.

"Over the months and years that followed, the GOTG acquired the necessary equipment (boat, nets, spears, etc.) for the IFSM to perform its duties at no charge to the IFSM," he says.

As project co-ordinator, Ferreira was instructed to communicate with the IFSM, but says that some of its demands, like higher compensation, were unreasonable and not feasible.

"Under their demands, we could no longer make use of them as a service provider. At no stage was the GOTG tied to the IFSM as the sole provider of fish. The IFSM stopped providing fish in October. CapeNature then agreed with us to proceed with the project without the IFSM due to the environmental impact on the lake caused by these invasive fish," says Ferreira.

CapeNature confirmed that it worked with both the IFSM and GOTG under separate memoranda of agreement and that no exclusive rights were granted to any single organisation.

According to it, the IFSM submitted regular data from 2018 to 2023, but no data were received for 2024. Since the IFSM's withdrawal, the GOTG has reportedly submitted monthly data.

CapeNature also confirmed experimental methods trialled under its approval, including the limited use of bait attached to gill nets by the GOTG and earlier experiments by the IFSM using sound to influence carp behaviour. The project is still active.

The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is listed as a category 1b invasive species under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act.

In protected areas such as Groenvlei, they must be actively controlled or eradicated due to their impact on water quality, aquatic vegetation and biodiversity.

George Herald is awaiting feedback from Nelson Mandela University soon. This comment will be added to the online article.

Residents in the area happy to receive a carp for supper. Photo: Gift of the Givers

Groenvlei, in Sedgefield, Western Cape, is a palaeo-coastal freshwater wetland with an extent of 357 hectares.

The 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) classified Groenvlei as having an ecological condition of ‘heavily to severely/critically modified’ (Department of Water and Sanitation ecological category D/E/F) and an ecosystem threat status of Critically Endangered, with less than 20% of its spatial extent remaining in a natural or near-natural state. Urgent restoration efforts are therefore required

Among the pressures identified in the NBA, controlling invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a primary management priority for restoring ecosystem functioning. Carp were illegally introduced into Groenvlei in the 1990s and are known to negatively affect water quality and indigenous biota. The long-term effectiveness of carp control efforts in the lake remains under investigation.

Groenvlei is conservation-worthy as a naturally rare ecosystem in the Western Cape. It supports genetically distinct populations of two indigenous fish species, the estuarine round-herring and the Cape silverside, that occur nowhere else in the world.

It also plays a critical role in maintaining ecological corridors and processes between mountain and coastal regions.

Despite its protected status within the Goukamma Nature Reserve, the lake faces threats from invasive species, periods of drought, as well as water abstraction in the catchment (it is fed by both rainfall and groundwater inflow), and a slow geological process of sedimentation that may eventually fill the vlei. Future threats include agricultural runoff, fire, and toxic/oil spills on the adjacent N2.

Researchers from Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) Institute for Coastal and Marine Research have been studying water quality and carp impacts at Groenvlei since 2013, under permits from CapeNature.

When carp removal operations commenced in 2018, these efforts received support from NMU researchers. In 2022, an NMU postdoctoral study was initiated to estimate the carp population and monitor ecosystem responses to removal activities, also conducted under CapeNature permits and Nelson Mandela University animal ethics approval.

Invasive Fish Species Management NPC (IFSM) was contracted as a service provider to assist with carp capture and tagging for the population estimate, given their operational experience.

All carp management decisions and methodological removal adjustments were made between the IFSM and CapeNature, the managing authority for Groenvlei, under whose permits (for research) and exemptions (for carp removal) activities took place.

NMU’s research on ecosystem responses to carp removal is ongoing, with key outputs expected in late 2026.