[imagesource: Twitter / @TechnoBokMedia]

My condolences to all of you who were forced to cancel this year’s trip abroad, to a destination with azure-coloured waters and pearly white beaches.

Still, you’ll find plenty of the latter in and around Cape Town, and if you’re after the former, you might want to check out the V&A Waterfront.

From various angles, the water in the harbour appears milky (like the shot above), but from others, it looks stunning.

These photos were taken in mid-May by Warren Povey:

 

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A post shared by Warren Povey (@warrenpovey)

As previously reported, the cause of the colour change is what can be dubbed a graveyard, with decomposing fish resulting in a lack of oxygen, killing marine life in the harbour basin.

Due to the harbour’s layout, it would take months for the water to naturally reoxygenate, so the V&A Waterfront has decided to take matters into its own hands.

TimesLIVE reports:

Water treatment experts have begun installing hi-tech underwater air diffusers to clear a layer of rotting fish from the bottom of Cape Town’s top marina…

The air diffusers, imported from Scotland, will inject oxygen into the underwater environment to displace a “dead zone” of gas and bacteria trapped on the marina seabed. In this way, a multidisciplinary team of experts hopes to restore the marina to its former glory by flushing out the area and stimulating organism regrowth.

It is a mammoth task, and despite the fact that around 100 tons of dead fish have already been cleared, V&A CEO David Green says more than that may still be trapped in the basin.

Marine conservation photographer Jean Tresfon, best known for his wonderful aerial shots of Cape Town, shared this image on May 26:

Image: Jean Tresfon

From that angle, it’s clear why an intervention is necessary.

Mike de Maine, from Swiss-based Dryden Aqua, which has been contracted to install the air diffusers, stressed the high-tech nature of the task:

He said key to restoring the V&A marina was building up the food-chain, which had totally collapsed due to the chemicals released by decomposing fish.

The team had already tested the technology at the marina and deployed go-pro cameras to analyse the underwater environment.

By penetrating the “bacterial mat” at the bottom of the marina, trapped gas would be released, which would help the regeneration process.

You can read the full TimesLIVE article here for more on the intricacies of the task at hand.

[source:timeslive]