Durban- As the people of KwaZulu-Natal enjoy the sardine run that has been going on for more than a month, concern has been raised over some unscrupulous fishermen who have been fishing at an estuary at the uMkhomazi River, which is illegal.
A concerned uMkhomazi resident, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said the incident happened on Wednesday. The man said people in the area had been relishing the unusual act of sardines entering the uMkhomazi River, which did not happen often.
Sardines have been seen in Winklespruit and eManzimtoti over the past few days.
He said the sardines’ entering the estuary was good news because it could boost the local fish population and also attract predators to it.
This had changed, however, he said, when commercial fishermen saw a business opportunity and took a boat and caught them using a net.
“It is extremely disappointing.”
Dino Govender, chief marine fisheries inspector for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff), said they had received a report of fishing at the river but when they had arrived there they had not found any sign of this.
“Fishing at estuaries is illegal,” said Govender, who is attached to Daff’s investigation unit.
This is because all estuaries and river mouths were breeding grounds for fish.
He said the young fish spawned there then went out to sea with the high tides. This meant fishing at estuaries was illegal because it would be young fish that were caught, that had not met the required size to be fished.
Govender said there was a big problem in KZN as the province had many rivers and estuaries, which made it hard to monitor illegal fishing.
The other problem was that many people used gill nets to capture fish, which was illegal. “What makes it worse is that courts are generally lenient towards people who are caught using this illegal fishing practice,” he said.