A film crew making an advertisement at Scarborough last week destroyed the nest of an African black oystercatcher - South Africa' rarest endemic coastal bird - when they "cleaned" the beach for the film shoot by raking up all the kelp.

This highlights the plight of a creature which is rarer than the southern right whale and which is being hammered by human pressure on the country's coastline.

Because of the crisis facing the oystercatchers, ornithologists launched a three-year oystercatcher conservation programme this summer, which aims to provide information to develop a conservation strategy for these birds.

One species of oystercatcher in Africa has already become extinct and the African black oystercatcher has now been listed as an International Red Data species - species under threat.

Ms Janice Corr, founder of the Scarborough Marine Environmental Education Trust, said yesterday residents had been monitoring the destroyed nest daily.

"We're working with the conservation programme, so we were watching the nest. Then on Friday morning we went down and the nest was gone. So was all the kelp. There was a film crew working there and they had raked the beach clean, destroying the nest.

"we went to speak to the location manager and he said they didn't know anything about a nest being there. They had been given a permit by the South Peninsula Municipality to work on the beach and had paid R1 200 a day for the shoot and R500 for each vehicle. He said there was nothing on the permit to say that they were not to rake the kelp.

"Last year another film crew brought in a palm which they put on an oystercatcher's nest, but a resident managed to save the eggs.

"I don't think they do these things on purpose, but through ignorance. We believe the council should supply a conservation officer to check on film crews at work, and charge them extra for that. How else can we make sure this doesn't happen again?" Corr said.

South Peninsula's manager for beaches, Mr Cliffe Krouse, confirmed that he had given a permit to Filmworks Africa to film at Scarborough.

"The permit didn't say they mustn't rake up the kelp because we as a council do it ourselves at Fish Hoek and Muizenberg on a daily basis," he said.

He said that on some days there were 11 film crews working on beaches under the municipality's control, so it was not possible to check up on all of them. Only at Noordhoek did the council have a staff member from the parks and recreation department monitoring crews.

Filmworks Africa declined to comment.

UCT ornithologist, Professor Phil Hockey, who heads the oystercatcher conservation programme, says the rarity fo the birds is not really appreciated by the public, because they are so conspicuous. There are fewer than 5 000 and they are found in Namibia and South africa only.

Hockey said: "Because their entire lives are confined t the coast, they are potentially at risk from all sorts of human factors, ranging from pollution and coastal development to straightforward disturbance from man, his pets and his toys.

"For example, there is an alarming correlation between a decrease in the breeding success of oystercatchers and an increase in the sale of 4x4 vehicles in South Africa."

He said the breeding rate of oystercatchers had gone up in areas where beaches had been closed to vehicles, like De Hoop and Goukamma nature reserves and the west side of Cape Point. "It's not so much that vehicles destroy nests, although we have evidence that this happens, but it's more a question of the movement of vehicles and people around the nests keeping the parent birds off them, which makes the eggs susceptible to overheating.

"If they're exposed for long enough, the eggs literally fry in the sun. The birds won't be able to tell they're dead, so will carry on sitting on them," Hockey said.

Young chicks sometimes drowned if there was too much human activity on the beaches, he said. This happened when the parnets called to the chicks to stay put because of the humans and if the humans are around long enough, the chicks drowned with the incoming tide.

Hockey said South Africa was solely responsible for conserving this species, the only oystercatcher breeding in Africa.

Another reason for launching the conservation programme is that oystercathcers are an excellent barometer of coastal change because all their needs must be foudn within a relatively small area in the inter-tidal zone of the coast. If something is wrong with them, chances are that other species will be affected too.

Africna black oystercatchers pair for life, says Hockey, with some pairs known to have been together for longer than 20 years. They may live to 35 years or older and do not breed until they are around four-years old, or even six years, compared with a "mossie", which breeds when it is around 12 weeks old.

Their nests are simple scrapes in the ground just above high-water mark. Breeding success on the mainland is particulalry low, with fewer than 500 chicks reaching fledgling age every year. Many of these die before breeding age.

"A survey of breeding success in March this year yielded some alarming results. In parts of the West Coast, the number of chicks reared was barely one tenth of that needed to maintain a healthy population. In parts of the Eastern Cape, success was even lower."

Webmaster's note:
If you want to be involved in the oystercatcher conservation programme, contact:

Professor Hockey
PercyFitzpatrick Institute
UCT
Rondebosch
7701
Fax: +27-21-650-3295
Email: ocp@botzoo.uct.ac.za

YOU CAN HELP!

• Keep away from oystercatchers when they are obviously agitated, especialy in summer, as you are probably keeping them from their nests or from feeding.
• Control your dogs on the beach.
• Avoid driving on the beach. If you do, drive slowly and be aware of the behaviour of the oystercatchers which will let you know if their nests are in danger.
• Join the oystercatcher conservation programme and "adopt" a strecth of coast to monitor their breeding success.