In a major shock to watersport enthusiasts, Marine and Coastal Management chief Horst Kleinschmidt disclosed that in future no recreational diving would be allowed from inflatable boats.
The proposal to ban all diving from "rubber ducks" is another desperate attempt by Marine and Coastal Management to save the dwindling perlemoen which has been poached to near extinction.
Said Kleinschmidt: "We have found that rubber boats are the preferred type used by perlemoen poachers because of their speed and agility. We have proposed that no diving at all be allowed from such boats in the areas where perlemoen are found."
This includes the entire Western Cape. The banning of all recreational diving from inflatable boats could be a major blow to the boat industry and related sport-diving activities.
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'Banning diving from such boats will further limit poaching' The Western Cape is home to a vibrant inflatable craft industry and several factories provide work for scores of people.
Recreational diving on wrecks, spearfishing and snorkling on the many reefs around the coast are all hugely popular and hundreds if not thousands own rubber ducks.
Other proposals, which could soon form part of a new far-reaching fisheries policy to protect perlemoen, include banning recreational divers from taking out perlemoen between St Helena Bay and Cape Agulhas, taking commercial quotas from companies and giving them to divers from poor coastal communities, allowing perlemoen-harvesting vessels to operate only between 8am and 3pm and giving diving groups from the various communities specific areas to harvest perlemoen.
Kleinschmidt said these proposals would now be circulated for comment, after which they would be handed to Environment Minister Valli Moosa for approval.
"We expect the new policy to be in place by December 1. I do realise banning the use of inflatable boats for recreational diving in areas which are home to perlemoen could be controversial.
'We are becoming a totally over-regulated society'
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