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. Banning diving from such boats will further limit poaching."
| 'We are becoming a totally over-regulated society' |
But Cleeve Robertson, recreational diver and former chairman of the Western Province Underwater Union, said government was now punishing law-abiding citizens while the sinners continued to poach.
"Not having a permit or quota has never stopped poachers from operating. Unless the government puts measures in place to control the landing of perlemoen at specified points only, the resource will continue to be overfished.
"I have gone down to Hout Bay on several occasions to watch the fishing boats landing crayfish. The corruption that goes on when crayfish is weighed is unbelievable. We all know how Hout Bay Fishing overfished the resource. And they were and are not alone. It is happening everywhere."
Referring to the banning of all sport and recreational diving from inflatable boats, Robertson said: "I am not so sure they have the authority to go this far. They would be infringing on people's rights. This could become a constitutional issue.
"We are becoming a totally over-regulated society. Why don't they simply block all the airports from where the perlemoen is flown to the East. How difficult can that be? Instead they blame the public for their own failure to protect the resource properly.
"Maybe a better option would have been to ban all perlemoen diving, both recreationaProposed ban could sink recreational divingl and commercial, for the next 10 years so that the resource can fully recover."
Kleinschmidt said "in an ideal world" a blanket ban on catching perlemoen would have been the preferred option.
"But there are poor fishing communities to consider. That is why we will be issuing permits to divers for particular communities and we will co-manage the resource with them. When the resource recovers we will lift the moratorium placed on recreational divers," said Kleinschmidt.
Robertson said the government had done little if anything to help subsistence fishermen in the past. On the other hand they helped the big fishing companies. "Just go and have a look at the large number of former politicians who are now shareholders in these companies.
"Subsistence fishermen are a small group and their votes are not really quantifiable. That is why they were ignored in the past.
"Whether this move will protect the resource against poaching remains to be seen," said Robertson.
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