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I know. This is beginning to start sounding like a stuck record. The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) IS NOT and CAN NOT be legally responsible for managing and allocating permits in the boat based whale watching and white shark cage diving sectors. On 28 May 2010 DEA desperately attempted to convince applicants in both sectors that it is lawfully entitled to allocate these permits. Their reasons are flawed and fictitious. Firstly, they contend that certain parts of the Marine Living Resources Act - those dealing with "environmental issues" - were never transferred back to the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (DAFF) in terms of the 29 January 2010 proclamation. They must have a different version to the one I have. In terms of the signed version I have, the President transferred the MLRA in its entirety save for section 43 to DAFF. Section 43 regulates marine protected areas and DEA is correct in its assertion that it continues to regulate each of th...

In response to issues raised on this blog regarding the efficacy of boat based whale permits issued by the department of environmental affairs (DEA), the Cape Argus reports (27 May 2010) that DEA continues to hold the view that it has the right to issue permits for whale watching despite the fact that the authority to administer the Marine Living Resources Act falls within the purview of the Department of Fisheries (DAFF). DEA (through SANParks) has also confirmed that it is not concerned by the fact that a senior employee is also an active member of a boat based whale watching applicant as long as the employee declares his interest in the company concerned. In the latter regard, the employee concerned is a 49% member of Raggy Charters that has applied for a permit to undertake whale watching in the Port Elizabeth area which includes the Bird Island Group Marine Protected Area. The employee - Anban Padayachee - is in charge of managing this particular area. If that is not a conflict of...

The recent murder of poachers by poachers in the Overberg may be the first shot in the open of the growing tensions that have been simmering since the ill-advised closure of the abalone fishery in 2008. Holders of commercial abalone fishing rights were unilaterally sidelined by the closure and organised TRIAD-backed groups of poachers took their place immediately as MCM, mired in perennial financial crises, dithered trying to come to grips with the mass-scale poaching that reached approximately 3500 tons by 2009. Between 2005 and 2009, Feike has estimated that South Africa allowed poachers to remove some 12 000 tons of abalone from our coastal waters, worth about R10 billion. By 2009, a number of the legal right holders had joined the ranks of the growing poaching community as MCM had failed to provide abalone divers with a sniff of the much vaunted "social relief plan", which they later admitted had in fact never existed - MCM and the Minister in charge - Marthinus van Schal...

The unlawful allocation of boat based whale watching (BBWW) permits by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is now engulfed by confusion as the DEA is now insisting that in fact permits were not allocated and there are no "successful applicants" despite correspondence to the contrary issued on 14 May 2010. The 14 May 2010 correspondence clearly lists applicants as being either successful or not. The DEA has further stated that "unsuccessful" applicants could appeal the decision. This is all rather confusing! Is DEA stating that it made a decision or did it not make a decision to allocate certain applicants permits and others not? How can you appeal a non-decision? Importantly, you cannot appeal an unlawful and invalid decision. Even further, in terms of which law is the appeal to be conducted as DEA has no authority under the Marine Living Resources Act to administer an appeal in terms of section 80 of the MLRA, read with the applicable regulations! There i...

On Friday 14 May 2010, the Department of Environmental Affairs insisted on allocating permits in the boat based whale watching sector despite lacking any legal authority to do so. We must admit that we find the current chaos befalling fisheries management in this country quite astounding. Where are the Ministers of DAFF and DEA? Have they not sat down and agreed to stop this ridiculous and unprofessional behaviour that is damaging the entire fisheries and marine eco-tourism sector? DEA's insistence on allocating these permits when they have been repeatedly warned that it does not have the legal authority to do so will result in litigation which we are sure will see a High Court set aside DEA's allocation of rights. This will in turn will throw the BBWW sector into chaos only days before the FIFA World Cup when 1000's of tourists are expected to want to board safe, well-regulated BBWW vessels. Will the Minister of Environmental Affairs lose her job? Will her senior manageme...

In the months before handing over control of MCM to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Department of Environmental Affairs spent R144 000 on 402 Bafana Bafana soccer jerseys for MCM staff using MLRF funds! That worked out to R358 a jersey! What makes this spending spree even more criminal is that since DAFF took control of MCM on 1 May, it has emerged that within 15 days of the financial year, MCM has no more money for any further fisheries research surveys for the 2010 season. This means that critical annual surveys for hake, pelagics, lobsters, mackerel, abalone etc are not going to take place. It is also apparent that MCM has no funds for any significant compliance strategy. At least we know what MCM's previous leadership under Mayekiso and then Razeena Omar (the Acting DDG of MCM) considered a priority. After all why spend any funds on fisheries management when you can spend it on Adidas Bafana Bafana soccer jerseys!

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) announced on 4 May 2010 that it would be allocating a further R6 million in compensatory relief payments to the 302 commercial abalone right holders. This equates to approximately R19 000 per right holder, excluding the divers' respective "bakkie" assistants. In her statement, the Minister wisely noted that her department will not be using any intermediary consulting company to facilitate the payments to the divers - instead her vast financial department at MCM will presumably ensure that every cent of the R6 million is transferred to the right holders. While the R19 000 will no doubt be appreciated by right holders, these "social grant" payments are not the solution. The solution remains the reopening of the fishery which was supposed to have been a reality by 1 February 2010. It is now Winter and the much vaunted promise of an abalone fishery this year has effectively faded away. This R6 million coul...

During April 2010, African experts on maritime security and safety gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to share information on maritime security and safety among AU Member states and with partners to consider the African Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIM-Strategy). Experts addressed threats and vulnerabilities such as natural disasters and environmental degradation, environmental crimes, illegal fishing, oil bunkering, money laundering, illegal arms and drug trafficking, human trafficking, maritime terrorism and piracy and armed robbery. In her opening remarks, Mrs Elham Ibrahim, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, recalled that “for years African states have been mostly concerned by the declining capacity of their maritime industry”. However, recently, the growing menace of unlawful activities on African waters and the rapid escalation of piracy activities off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea has meant that more attention be also given to matters of maritime secur...