LOCAL VIEW

A local fisherman

Currently South Africa’s off-shore fishing stocks don’t seem to be in danger but issues with our in-shore fishing resources is said to be of serious concern. Some rural areas depend on these fish to feed their families or barter with other people in the community for other farming produce. However, poor management of these small-scale fishers and poachers from around the world are coming to steel abalone from our coast lines, and this seems to be the problem with the declining resources. Six out of ten of the most popular in-shore fishes are almost extinct and our valuable abalone has been demolished by poachers (Coastline of South Africa on WWF, 2010). To build these particular marine resources up again will take radical steps, but it is imperative that changes are made as the benefits to the community and environment will be immense.

One of the biggest problems we have in South Africa is the lack of management with regards to the control of illegal fishing; this can be from poachers to recreational fishing. The correct term is IUU fishing which includes illegal, unreported and unregulated. When fishermen don’t report what they have taken for the day proper statistics cannot be made and therefore they can’t determine which fish are in danger. Illegal fishing includes: taking undersized fish, taking more than your quota for the day; having disrespect for any other environment impacts around you; and avoid paying taxes - which allows you to charge cheaper prices for their fish (Illegal fishing on WWF, 2010). This causes instability in fishing markets, loss of income from legal fishermen and overall decrease in sustainability of environment.



The bycatch caught while fishing for tuna



Impacts of fishing methods in some way or another will have an impact on the environment. The World Wide Foundation has established certain factors and different levels that they will take into account before deeming the method as unacceptable for the environment. This includes: 1) Bycatch which includes all the organisms that are caught when fishing for a certain species, for example when fishing for Hake, Kingklip gets caught as well. However, Kingklip is scarce and therefore does not have its own fishing department therefore it is managed as a bycatch of the Hake fishery (Impacts of fishing on WWF, 2010). 2) Incidental mortality, this refers to unintentional deaths caught during fishing actions. 3) Selectivity, where no fish is wasted during the catches and top fishing gear is used. 4) Habitat damage, physical destruction of underwater habitats. Some of these habitats are permanently damaged and this reduces the number of shelters for fish. (Impacts of fishing on WWF, 2010). As we can see it is human activities that play the biggest role in destroying of the marine environment, there should be stricter rules and regulations with regards to these factors. They should consider banning the trawlers from fishing completely if they don’t abide by the regulations, why should they get a second chance when the environment doesn’t?