Photographs by David Hamman, and H l ne Heldring capture the true sirit of the 'painted wolves' and give a new understanding of just how the species fit into not only the environment but also the world. Let's hear it for the oceans on Marine Day. Next Friday is National Marine Day and although Pretoria is some distance from the sea there's no reason residents of the city and surrounding areas shouldn't align themselves with it - after all the sea and its denizens are as much a part of our environment as the bushveld. Ecotourism and the sea is the theme of this year's National Marine Day which is followed through in a poster designed and distributed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's Sea Fisheries division to mark the day. Ecotourism, according to a sea fisheries spokesman, is one of the fastest growing industries in South Africa, with its kilometres of undeveloped coastline and a wealth of marine reserves.
Ecotourism creates employment and is an important earner of foreign currency.
This year the poster is in the form of a calendar which illustrates ecotourism activities such as fishing, diving, hiking trails and whale watching. It is available in English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu. National Marine Day was introduced by the department in 1988 to make South Africans aware of the important role the marine environment plays. At that time funds were not available for South African input and an even greater obstacle was the difference between local soils and those in the northern hemisphere and tropics. This means international soil classification systems do not provide for most of South Africa's agricultural and ecologically important soils and the southern tip of the continent is not alone in this regard.