The effects of sediment deposits from Namibian diamond mines on intertidal and subtidal reefs and rock lobster populations

• 1. Extensive diamond mining occurs on land and in the sea on the west coasts of South Africa and Namibia, raising fears that diamond‐mining activities may impact commercial rock‐lobster fisheries and benthic communities. To explore this possibility, the effects of the diamond‐mining fines‐discharge on intertidal and subtidal rocky‐shore communities and on the population structure of the rock lobster Jasus lalandii were assessed at Elizabeth Bay.
• 2. Sampling over six years at sites covering a range of wave exposures compared impacted sites with comparable reference sites never exposed to the fines. Percentage cover and densities of benthic organisms were recorded on both intertidal and subtidal reefs. Rock‐lobster abundance was estimated from counts and catch‐per‐unit‐effort, and their length frequencies and sex ratios compared in impacted and reference areas.
• 3. The deposition of fines had no effect at wave‐exposed sites, but did impact intertidal and subtidal communities at sheltered localities where fines accumulated because wave action was insufficient to disperse them. Reductions of grazers, proliferation of algae and increased dominance by filter‐feeders were recorded at the impacted sites and persisted throughout the monitoring programme. Differences in community structure associated with different levels of wave exposure were, however, greater than those produced by depositing fines. The detected effects of fines‐deposits on the benthos were local and likely to be reversible after cessation of mining.
• 4. The fines‐deposit had no detectable effects on the sex‐ratio, size or abundance of rock lobsters, indicating that there is no conflict between the deposition of fines and the fishery for rock lobsters, although substantial inter‐site variability makes it difficult to regard the results as definitive.

Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.