Cape Town - Tsitsikamma residents are delighted that government will allow them to fish in parts of Africa’s oldest marine protected area proclaimed to help rejuvenate South Africa’s heavily exploited fish stocks.
They say they were never consulted when the marine protected area was proclaimed and they have an historical right to fish there.
But marine scientists say the move by the Department of Environmental Affairs is a recipe for disaster and will “open up the heart” of a protected area to exploitation. They also say this move is ushering in highly problematic way of allocating marine resources by allowing some people exclusive access to exploit a protected area.
Environment Minister Edna Molewa has published draft regulations to rezone the Tsitsikamma Marine Protected Area, part of the Garden Route National Park, to allow fishing to South African citizens who live in the KouKamma Municipal area or within eight kilometres of the coast between the Bloukrans River and Covie. Once registered, they will be given permits to fish in four areas which make up about 20 percent of the marine protected area which stretches for 58km from Nature’s Valley east of Plettenberg Bay to the Groot River in the Eastern Cape.
Molewa said the decision to allow fishing had come after “a 20-year-old journey initiated by Tsitsikamma anglers who requested fishing rights in the marine protected area citing cultural, historical and subsistence reasons”.
SANParks spokeswoman Nandi Mgwadlamba said the public was invited to comment on the proposals. In the meantime fishing would be opened “as a pilot project” on December 15 for those anglers who were eligible. They would be allowed to fish four days a month until at least April. The pilot project would test whether it was feasible” to open the four areas permanently.
She said the Tsitsikamma had an unemployment rate of 50 percent.
Henrico Bruiners, chairman of the Tsitsikamma Angling Forum, welcomed the move.
“ When this was declared in 2000 we were not consulted. It is done from a humanitarian point of view otherwise people have to travel 50 to 60km to the west or 30 km to the east to fish,” Bruiners said.
UCT marine scientist Colin Attwood said the proposal defeated the point of having a marine protected area to protect heavily exploited linefish from fishing pressure, to conserve their genetic diversity and to help colonise our depleted stocks.
“This would open up the heart of a protected area which will compromise its functioning. Just as worrying, it is being done on an exclusive basis. Never before have recreational fishing rights been awarded to a select group for a specific area. No one will respect marine protected areas after that. It’s a recipe for disaster,” Attwood said.
He said nothing would be proved by running a pilot project.
“Huge studies have been done on how catch rates affect productivity of fish stocks. We know that. There is no need for a pilot study. All they need to do is read the research. SANParks and DEA are falling over themselves to violate a protected area.”
Rhodes University marine scientist Warwick Sauer said a full appraisal should have been done before allowing fishing. The protected area were nurseries for some fish and breeding grounds for others.
“The majority of our linefish stocks are under threat from over-fishing. A state of emergency was declared as a result in 2000. Fish in the protected marine areas have a chance to breed and reseed other areas. To open these areas to fishing is just mind-boggling,” Sauer said.
Cape Times