It is estimated that 30,000 subsistence fishermen in 148 fishing communities along South Africa’s 3,000 kilometres of coastline are largely excluded from the government’s fishing rights allocation process. They are only able to catch fish – their daily bread – only on a recreational fishing permit, which makes it illegal to sell their catch. The situation has led to worsening coastal poverty.
The situation was not good and so subsistence fishers were hoping that a new government policy, the Draft Policy for the Allocation and Management of Medium-Term Subsistence Fishing Rights, would address their plight. South African environmental minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has appointed a task team representing subsistence fishers in 2007 which were involved in developing the policy. But the draft policy released in December 2008 has been rejected by the task team because the policy says allocation of fishing rights to subsistence fishers is a challenge in that marine resources have already been allocated to commercial fisheries.
In the case of West Coast Rock Lobster the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the species in 2007/2008 was 2,571 tons, a 10 percent decline from the previous year. This allocation, worth has been estimated at $34 million in value, was split between 1,754 tonnes to the offshore industry, 560 tonnes for the near shore and 257 tonnes for the recreational industry, according to Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) figures.
Artisanal Fisheries Association chairman Andy Johnstone said that it is like giving someone a plate of food and then they find out there’s no food on the plate. He added that the Territorial User Rights Fishery and Co-management System (TURF), Johnstone said the framework was developed in the 1990s by artisinal fishers. It proposes that management conditions would vary from zone to zone. To ensure sustainability, the system proposes a register of catches in specific zones and a partnership between local knowledge and science.
