Pickled fish may be off the menu in many households this Easter.
This after the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) last week started cracking down on daily catch limits for small-scale fishers.
The DFFE even enlisted the help of the army at the weekend. It inspected several boats on the Hondeklipbaai slipway in the Northern Cape.
Maria Welcome, spokesperson for environmental organisation, Green Connection, says fishers along the West Coast, extending down to the Western Cape, were struggling with quotas to meet demands.
Welcome says: “Snoek migration starts a cultural ritual that has been practised for as long as fishers can remember. Eager consumers of snoek and partakers in the Easter Weekend fish rituals and delicacies should be warned – the shelves and pantries may be empty this year.”
A DFFE spokesperson, Peter Mbelengwa, said that last Friday, several vessels were inspected, and the department discovered that a number of recreational boats had exceeded their daily catch limit.
Mbelengwa says: “The control officer then confiscated the excess fish and issued fines to the transgressors. Members of the public protested, demanding that no fish be confiscated or fines issued.
“At this point, SAPS requested support from the SANDF in response to the public protests.”
He said last Saturday, 20 linefish vessels were out at sea at Hondeklipbaai.
At around 12.30pm, when the vessels were busy offloading their catches, officials accompanied by police came to inspect and monitor all catches.
No fines were issued, and no fish was confiscated, Mbelengwa said.
Welcome said it’s a huge setback for fishers as many of the 62 newly-formed fisheries cooperatives who only received their rights recently were informed “overnight” that cuts were being made.
For many, this means that more than half of their fishers will not be able to go to sea to catch snoek, Cape Bream, or any other traditional linefish, she said.
Welcome says: “It is unclear who authorised the army and police to go to this small town; however, for the past week, the Legal Resources Centre, Masifundise and the Coastal Justice Network have been flooded with requests for assistance by traditional small-scale fishermen who are shocked that not only has the department delayed the processing of their linefish permits this year, but the number of boats that are permitted will be cut drastically.”
Walter Steenkamp, who is a small-scale fisherman in Port Nolloth, said they didn’t understand why the government was trying to cut them out of the fishing industry.
Nolloth says: “They must try to bring co-management in so we can negotiate and sit around one table and put the regulations and everything in the basket, and on the table.”
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za