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On 25 November 2009, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and her department launched the 2008/2009 compliance and enforcement report. As Feike had authored a research paper which concluded (but roundly denied by government officials) that illegal fishing cost the SA economy an estimated R6 billion in 2008 and that Marine and Coastal Management - a branch of the environmental affairs department - was incapable and unwilling to curb illegal fishing, I was particularly interested to understand the department's initiatives and statistics pertaining to illegal fishing. The entire report of 35 pages fails to mention the words "abalone" or "fish" or "hake" or "shark-fin"... or any matter related to fishing once! In fact the entire "compliance and enforcement report" is really only able to say this about marine and coastal management - "Marine and Coastal Management (a branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs) recorded the h...

Over Monday 30 November to Friday 4 December 2009, an international panel will be reviewing assessments of the local hake and abalone resources at a workshop being held at the University of Cape Town. The panel comprises Drs A Punt (USA), A Smith (Australia) and G Stefansson (Iceland). While most sessions will be highly technical, with attendance by invitation only, the following sessions, to be chaired by Dr K Prochazka (MCM), will be open to a general audience: Monday 30: 9-00 to 10-30 am - Hake An overview of the approach used to set TACs for the hake fishery since 2007, and of an updated assessment proposed as the basis to revise this approach from 2011 (D Butterworth and R Rademeyer - UCT) Tuesday 1: 9-00 to 10-30 am - Abalone An overview of the status of the abalone resource, and a description of the model used to assess this status for Zones A-D (G Maharaj – MCM and E Plaganyi – CSIRO, Australia) Friday 4: 11-00 am to 12-30 pm – International norms for fishery regulation ...

On 23 November 2009, Monde Mayekiso who was appointed as head of Marine and Coastal Management in 2005 for a second time in as many decades, was finally "moved to focus on the area of marine science, ecosystem management and climate change within the department". Feike also understands that after months of indecision and embarrassment, South Africa actually will have a minister of fisheries that is actually responsible for fisheries regulation and management. Feike understands that the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry will assume control over fisheries, replacing the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs who had appeared to exert executive control in this sphere since May 2009. The fishing industry will undoubtedly breathe a huge collective sigh of relief that Mayekiso has finally been removed as he oversaw the collapse of MCM and its funding arm the Marine Living Resources Fund for a second time. Mayekiso was removed as head of MCM in 1999 by the then Mi...

On 17 October 2009, President Zuma addressed the commercial abalone divers in Hawston, Western Cape, about the future of their commercial fishing rights. After hearing their stories and the failures of Marine and Coastal Management to address abalone poaching and the implementation of the long-promised "social plan", Zuma underook to revert to the right holders with an update about their futures as commercial abalone divers " within a month". The time has now come for that promised update. What has happened in the interim since Zuma's visit is that abalone divers have received payments of R20 000 each in lieu of the suspension of their fishing rights since February 2008. There remains much unclarity regarding these payments and the manner in which they are being made. There are too may right holders who simply don't have answers to important questions. Firstly, the payment of all funds is being facilitated through a trust that purports to represent all comme...