CAPE TOWN - While the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) activated the West Coast rock lobster contingency plan, the effects of the red tide that has caused a mass walkout of the species could potentially be devastating for small-scale fishers.
This as the South African United Fishing Front (SAUFF) explains there is no telling when the resource would come back to the area following the event.
The algal bloom or red tide, developing on the West Coast, had caused an estimated 500 tons of West Coast rock lobster to walk out as of Tuesday, the DFFE said.
The Cederberg Municipality on Wednesday said that teams collected the live crayfish to be transported to St Helena Bay for release while decomposed crayfish will be buried above the high water mark.
“As is often the case in summer and late summer, there has been a build-up of large red tides in the greater St Helena Bay region over the past few weeks. These blooms of phytoplankton presently extend 50 to 60 kilometres, dominating waters in the vicinity of Elands Bay, Lambert’s Bay, and Doring Bay.
“These blooms are dominated by a group of phytoplankton known as dinoflagellates and their inshore accumulation, particularly during periods of calm, often leads to their decay and the subsequent development of low oxygen conditions which cause marine mortalities. With the prediction of light westerly winds over the next few days, the risk of further mortalities is high,” DFFE said.
They were working with the local municipalities and law enforcement to assist in rescuing live lobsters and with clean-up operations.
“All recovered live lobster will be rehabilitated and will be safely returned to sea once the red tide threat has abated.”
SAUFF chairperson Pedro Garcia said the impact on fishing communities had the potential to be devastating.
“It all depends how far the small-scale fishers are with their current harvesting rights, some may have completed what they were allocated for the year while some may not have.
“According to the department, it is not safe to eat them. The lobster moves out because of oxygen depletion, they are trapped between the red tide and the shoreline, which pushes fish out on to the shore. The recovery plan should have started a few days ago with the first hint of a walk out. Lobsters that are alive are taken just beyond the area where the red tide is still prevalent because they do recover, they can live out of water for a good couple of hours.
“They’d also use factory facilities close by and use tanks to put beached lobsters into so they can recover and be put back into the water afterwards.”
He said the full impact on fishing communities is difficult to tell at this point in time “because we don't know how many residents have harvested and what amount, and what the recovery rate is going to be”.
“The red tide doesn‘t last that long, but that doesn‘t mean once broken up that the resource will return to those areas again, that becomes problematic because then fishers don’t have access to the resource. So it can be devastating if people haven’t harvested, or at least a significant portion of their allocation.”
Cederberg municipal manager Dawie Adonis said: “The joint operating centre meeting resolved that they will employ three teams to collect the live crayfish and transport it to St Helena Bay for release. The decomposed crayfish will be buried above the high water mark by means of digger loaders.”
Cape Times