Cape Town - The reduced Total Allowable Catch (TAC) quota will give small-scale fisheries (SSF) no choice but to poach. This was the opinion of the SSF when they protested outside the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries offices.
“We are dissatisfied with the rights and allocations. Big corporate companies are still getting young tons while small scale get so much less that it is hard to provide for our families. We want the department to make more reductions in the quotas for big companies and give us more room to fish,” said protest organiser and fisherman Yusuf Achmat.
Last week, the department announced the new quotas where there was a 43.6% reduction in the West Coast rock lobster. The reduction saw a combined TAC of SSF interim relief measure and SSF sector nearshore stand at 170.25 tons this year. Last year the two were 235.3 tons and 70.4 tons, respectively.
The SSF offshore was cut to 140.83 tons from 248.7 tons.
Achmat said each person had rights to catch 60kg annually.
Trevor Harris, a zone 8 fisherman along Gordons Bay side, said the department failed to consult with fisherfolk on the ground.
“When I got my first started, ten years ago, my quota was 808kg and now its reduced to 203 kg for the nearshore. I don’t know how government wants us to provide for our families with that unless they want us to just poach; if that is what we must do then we will do just that,” he said.
Hout Bay fisherman Roland Wichman said the department was inconsistent and failed to do proper verifications at fishing villages.
“We have people with rights but have never been to the seas. In each community there is only a handful of fishermen, but their permits are handed to those who are not fishermen and those people use us fishermen with no permits to fish for them,” he said.
Cathy Thomas, a boat owner from St Helena Bay, said the season had been reduced to three months from December to March, while in previous years it was from mid-November to end of June.
Andrew Chimma said abalone poaching in the Overberg had increased to 3 000 tons and would probably get higher after the SSF were deprived from fishing it.
Department spokesperson Khaye Ndzokwana said the SSF got what they demanded when they became “friends of the court” in support World Wildlife Fund SA (WWF). “It is the same SSF who went on to join WWF court application against the department on the reduction of TAC, arguing that it will conserve marine resources. The court ruled in their favour calling for the department to reduce quotas.”
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