Cape Town - The SA Small-scale Fisheries Collective (SASSFC), a fishing rights group, has welcomed a Western Cape High Court ruling in favour of the reduction of the West Coast Rock Lobster (WCRL) total allocation catch (TAC) set by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff).
Judge Owen Rogers ruled that the TAC for WCRL for 2017/2018 is inconsistent with the constitution as per the Marine Living Resources Act.
The ruling followed an application by the World Wide Fund for Nature SA (WWF), which complained that the TAC set at 1924.08 tons was too high, thus undermining the lobster’s long-term survival and also disregarding fishermen who depend on the valuable resource.
SASSFC co-founder Pedro Garcia said the organisation welcomed the ruling and was in support of the reduction, as long as it did not apply to small-scale fisheries.
“It is now up to Daff on how the reduced allocation will be distributed. A blanket reduction would have dire effects on small-scale fishers.”
WWF said it expected Daff to set next season’s TAC at a level that would allow this resource to recover.
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