ABOUT US

How it all started

After returning from Mozambique in 1993 having been exposed and participating in an anti-poaching exercise in Northern Mozambique , I decided to take some time out. After a huge financial disappointment created by myself and a number of other financial challenges , I personally believed that I was a junior student at the “ university of life “.

Not receiving any form of payment for the Mozambique trip forced us to identify new ways to generate a consistent income. We had just moved to Harterbeespoort dam and within days of arriving I decided to go to the dam a couple of hundred meters from the house. While wadding in waist deep water attempting to catch a fish on fly tackle I stepped into a submerged net. I removed the net and pulled it towards the shore. Once I had the net on the bank I was shocked to see how many indigenous fish species especially the blue kurper were trapped in this + 10m long gill net. This created a new interest as I had never seen a gill net in the Hartebeespoort dam ever , even as a child fishing at the dam on a regular bases with my father and family. We had never come across any form of netting.

We interviewed a number of anglers in the days that followed and to our surprise it appeared as if it was not uncommon to find these nets. After a couple of more anti-net actions and after recovering kilometers of net out the dam we decided to exhibit at an outdoor exhibition in Johannesburg to display our net recovery actions at Hartebeespoort dam. We were overwhelmed by outdoor and fishing enthusiasts that reported similar netting activities in other regions. We then started the “ Die Net “ campaign and met very little or no resistance from local authorities. The only resistance we faced head on was that of the “ poachers “ who insisted it was a cultural right and self subsistence.

North West Nature conservation seniors were up in arms as our interaction at a grass route level was creating a problem as we had resorted to exposing poaching or netting activities taking place in protected areas and conservation areas. Nature and conservation was my chosen path and I have always been fanatical about nature and especially aquatic systems , unfortunately we received some negative publicity been described as a “lone crusader that was both arrogant and financially broke “. Law enforcement members were not pleased with our successes as they had more important tasks to complete and thought of getting wet , dirty and at times sharing the water with a host of dangerous animals while removing the nets.

After attending more and more exhibitions we created and generated overwhelming support by individuals and the media who funded and supported the cause.

The sponsorship we received from time to time , afforded us the opportunity to mature and research activity areas carefully. It allowed us to travel country wide and overborder and in many instances we joined forces with government agencies and therefor we had huge successes. With some special peoples assistance we managed to secure funding to research what other pressures of our indigenous fresh water fish species populations would be , and how they would be affected.

During this process we were introduced to a host of other aquatic animals including frogs , birds and others only to mention a few that were been negatively affected by poor water quality and pollution. This resulted in more research , traveling , exhibitions and a definite need for funding. All our new projects were personally driven by special individuals who personally funded us through the companies they either owned or represented. By now we changed our name to the Aquatic Protection Group and operated as a non profit organization.

In 1999 after exposing yet another corporate polluting our water ways we suffered one of the many challenges , as a direct result of us exposing a particular industry leader that received enormous negative media attention for polluting a river for 2 years , applied pressure to our branded sponsors , forcing them to withdraw all funding with immediate affect as our sponsors had financial interests in their company. Even though these sponsors had the utmost respect for our cause , they had no other choice but to abandon Aquatic Protection Group and in fact one of our main sponsors was forced to resign from his company. All projects came to an immediate end. This was a huge wake up call and it appeared as if the “university of life “ was far from over.

A number of spill companies had taken an interest in our activities and a couple of the market leaders in the pollution control and hazardous material management industry enjoyed the fact that we could apply pressure on companies that were not complying and in fact had huge waste problems and simply ignored these problems because of huge costs and because of the blatant fact that nobody was policing these problem areas.

We applied the pressure and the spill companies got the work therefor they generated an income and us as the “ whistle blowers “ were forgotten , however three spill companies recognized our experiences and employed us for payment at aquatic incidents where we worked hand in hand with them.

Aquatic Protection Group had found a new survival method and this assisted us to assist companies that had no funding to clear spills or emergency spills they could not afford. To us it was about saving the environment.

Aquatic Protection Group was now fairly well known to the fire departments country wide as well as a number of coastal and marine incident responders who had introduced us to many disasters and major incidents and we generated a wealth of experience at these incidents because of these persons and institutions that recognized our cause and supported us.

Aquatic Protection Group was up and running , spending months away from home but still functioning. I decided to attach Aquatic Protection Group to a national conservation project that was been funded by a Norwegian company. For the first time in years it seemed that I had now made the correct choice and at last we could look forward to a consistent income for a two year period on a monthly bases.

Project managers and project leaders , including a number of sport personalities were employed by the funder and therefor we had eventually become part of the “ bigger future “. On a high we completed our current projects and relocated to Cape Town as a family where we started our road show and progressed up the coast to Durban.

My two daughters were very young and not in school and my wife resigned from a very good career to join me on my travels. It was our intention to complete the project and then set up home in Mossel Bay and open our environmental center.

Aquatic Protection Group completed a “ Crayfish project “ in Elands Bay and and proceeded to Cape Town in February 2000 to start the new project. On arrival in Cape Town I made contact with the project director to finalise financial matters. I was at the address where the branding documents , project documents and brouchers were to be collected , when I was informed that the funding for the project was missing and the entire project was on hold.

We traveled to Mossel Bay , set up camp and waited. At this stage my family had extended an ultimatum , and respectfully so , that I should choose between them or the penguins.

Aquatic Protection Group started from scratch and A.P.G Incidents Support Services was born. This would be a normal business for payment of services rendered , if at any time that we were ever in the financial position , we would fund our own projects and attempt to build the non profit section of the organization.

We have been more than fortunate to have been in the position to slowly recover and have been continuing with our aquatic conservation efforts while running our business.

It is our dream to start an environmental centre in the near future.

We thank all the companies that have made use of our services and paid for them allowing us to survive and allowing us to protect what is important to us been the aquatic environments.