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The Minister of Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, has suspended her Director-General, Langa Zita according to Landbou .com. The reasons for his suspension are not yet known. The Minister had suspended her Acting DDG for fisheries in early May. To date, the Fisheries Minister has not had the courage or decency to explain why she suspended the Acting DDG of Fisheries. Probably just another ANC-cadre factional battle that continues to constrict the South African civil service into complete paralysis.

The MSC announced in April that the certifiers for seven MSC certified mackerel fisheries in the North East Atlantic ocean have had their MSC status suspended. The suspension notice follows two years of catches above the scientific advice as a result of a significant increase in the amount of mackerel caught by countries outside the certified fleets and the breakdown of international agreements and negotiations aimed at managing the stock. In July 2010, the certified fisheries were notified that – in order to maintain their certification and ecolabel – total catches in the North East Atlantic mackerel fishery would need to be brought back under an internationally agreed management regime. This included the catches from countries outside the certified fleets. The deadline for implementing that notification expired on 31st December 2011. For more on this, click here .

According to the Cape Times this morning, DAFF now admits that the observer programme was terminated because "...it was simply a result of financial and bureaucratic problems."  So, "simply" because of incompetent staff who are unable to plan and execute basic fisheries management functions, South Africa's hake trawl fishery may have its MSC status suspended. And if suspended, we will no doubt lose access to these competitive and lucrative markets.  It is truly amazing that such an admission can be so glibly made without consequence. The observer programme was terminated in 2011, some 12 months back! Did no one at DAFF bother to think that they should address the "financial and bureaucratic problems"? Why are they only attending to it now that Feike, Industry and the DA have raised a public storm about the massive socio-economic consequences of losing MSC status?  And before they retort with some dishonest plea about how they have been att...

The Namibian newspaper reported on Friday 15 June 2012 that Nambia' Fisheries Minister, Mr Bernard Esau, elected to ignore the advices of his hake scientists and the fisheries advisory council and allocated substantially higher hake and monkfish quotas than recommended. Nambia's hake scientists recommended a hake TAC of 130,000 tons; the advisory council recommended 140,000 tons and the Minister decided to set a TAC of 170,000 tons for hake. With respect to monkfish, the Minister added 4,000 tons to the 10,000 ton recommended TAC.  The Minister justified his decision essentially because he held the view that catches were good during 2011, companies had to be able catch through the year and new fishing quotas were allocated in both the hake and monkfish sectors. The TAC increases come in the face of continuing concerns with regard to the integrity of fisheries management in Namibia. It was recently reported how a politically connected Spanish businessman and fishin...

After the mind-numbingly stupid comments on MSC by the Department on Thursday stating that the hake trawl fisheries must simply look for other markets if the MSC cancelled South Africa's hake MSC status, the Fisheries Department has now panicked and suddenly changed its false tune.  On 15 June 2012, the Department issued a statement suddenly recognising the importance of the MSC certification and the need for an observer programme. Suddenly the relationship between DAFF and the MSC is "solid and strong". On Thursday, the department held the MSC in contempt stating that "[i]t is worth noting that MSC is not the only eco label — there are also others ... ". But on Friday, the relationship is "solid and strong". The levels of dishonesty are appalling. But it also shows a Department and Minister completely confused and unable to stitch together a vision or plan that lasts more than a day.  Here is the department's full statement issued on Frid...

The Department of Fisheries' Lionel Adendorff issued a bizarre statement on 14 June 2012 stating that "[f]ollowing recent highly irresponsible untruths and misrepresentations concerning the tuna longliner, the Eihatsu Maru, the Chinese-owned fishing vessel that ran aground in Cape Town last month, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries would like to state for the record that vessel did not require or was not issued with a foreign fishing vessel licence in accordance with Section 39 of the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998 (MLRA), as it was not, as a prerequisite of this section,  “used for fishing or related activities in South African waters”. Adendorff continues to state that an application for a " permit to enter South African waters was received, processed and granted to allow the Eihatsu Maru to use port facilities; bunkering, stocking up on supplies and discharging of cargo, and it was valid from 8th of May until the 8th of June. An extension...

If you read only one thing today (besides our BLOG of course) then read today's editorial in the Business Day. EDITORIAL: Department at sea over licences It is a wonder that Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson survived Tuesday’s Cabinet reshuffle. IF THE Springboks play tomorrow the way the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has handled its responsibilities of late, we are in for a hiding from England. The department has dropped the ball badly in a number of areas, most recently with regard to the commercial hake industry’s membership of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The suspension of SA’s annual observer programme, which entails sending independent scientific observers out to sea to determine the size and sustainability of the hake stock, means no MSC certification. And no MSC certificate means a significant number of customers, particularly in Europe, who have committed to buy only certified fish, will be forced to lo...

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The Business Day this morning confirms what we have been saying for some time now. The Minister of Fisheries has now confirmed that it is her intention to destroy the sustainability and economic well-being of the South African fishing industry and particularly the most lucrative hake trawl sector.  The responses of the Fisheries Department's spokesperson to concerns that SA may lose its much vaunted MSC certification is indicative of a government completely out of touch with economic and market realities. The Department is essentially of the view that it does not particularly care about MSC certification, as there are other eco-labels and other markets so the hake trawl industry must just look for other markets and who the department is not concerned if industry profitability is affected.  In other words, this government does not give a damn if South Africa loses access to vital export markets; if we lose jobs; if companies become less profitable (and thus pay less t...

So President Zuma finally did his mini-cabinet shuffle and despite all the corridor whispers, the Minister of Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, remains in her post.  Yes, we can all turn to each other and demand to know how is this possible! This Minister has after-all single handedly moved to destroy the fishing industry. The answer perhaps is that the fishing industry has remained too silent; too reliant on quiet diplomacy in the face of a rabid anti-fishing industry Minister.  Consider the fact that civil society stood up and demanded that the e-tolls in Gauteng be scrapped; took the government to court to assert their rights and won and then won again as the President was forced to sack both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Transport.  Instead, the South African fishing industry has now forsaken the last possible Cabinet shake-up for the forseeable future faced with the prospect of the loss of MSC certification for hake; implementation of the small-sc...

Business Day this morning reports that SA’s commercial hake trawl fisheries could lose their Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) membership next month, cutting the industry off from the lucrative European market and jeopardising about 5000 jobs. The loss of SA’s deep sea trawler-caught hake export market — estimated to be worth half the country’s total R2,89bn a year deep sea hake market — would cause a price collapse as unaccredited fish would flood the South African market, said Tim Redell, chairman of Fish SA, an umbrella body of fisheries associations, yesterday. Read the Business Day article here (Please note that the reference to the value of the pilchard and anchovy fisheries in the article is incorrect. These values should read R185 million and R573 million, respectively.)

The Economist (May 26th-June 1st) reports on the impressive recovery of a huge proportion of American fisheries, noting how a combination of reduced political interference, an emphasis on tenure security for quota holders, support for the transferability of fishing quotas and increased reliance on sound science has spurred the recovery of an impressive number of fisheries. It is instructive that South Africa in fact consciously pursues the exact opposite. Our Fisheries Minister appears hellbent on destroying the SA fishing sector. It is beyond comprehension why our politicians are so committed to seeking out historically proven policy failures and then implementing these! Like fishing co-operatives and community-based fishing quotas! History tells us to not go there!  In 2004, South Africa had two fisheries in crisis but recovering. Linefish stocks, particularly in marine protected areas were recovering rapidly. Abalone poaching was being reduced and a TURF-based managemen...

If we recall, the tuna longliner, Eiahatsu Maru , ran aground last month at Clifton. While it was authorised to fish in SA waters under a joint venture arrangement with a South African tuna longline quota holder, it now emerges that a representative of the vessel owning company initially travelled to South Africa to understand the extent of company's liabilities and is now leaving without settling any of the salvage and related costs.  In terms of Section 39 of the Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA), a foreign fishing vessel licence may only be issued by the Minister of Fisheries where the vessel owner provides sufficient financial and other guarantees, as well as satisfying conditions regarding insurance related to pollution and rescue or salvage. Furthermore, the Minister must be satisfied that the guarantees provided are adequate for the purpose of section 39.  As the vessel owning company appears to be walking away from the salvage bill, it is apparent that our Fi...

In reply to Parliamentary Question 1427, the Minister of Fisheries sheds more light on why she has been able to provide the profoundly shocking leadership in fisheries over the past 3 years.  In terms of South Africa's public administration laws, every Minister is authorised to appoint a maximum of two special advisers under section 12A of the Public Service Act, 1994. The purpose of the appointment of special advisers is...well for a Minister to appoint specialists to advise on policy and governance. So when a Minister with no prior knowledge of or experience in fisheries is appointed as the Minister of Fisheries, one would have assumed that she would rush to appoint specialists in the field of fisheries governance and policy. Nope. Not our distinguished Fisheries Minister. Instead, the Minister confirms that while she has appointed as many special advisers as deputy-director generals of fisheries (7 each!), everyone of those specials advisers had and currently have no ex...

The Rapport newspaper yesterday raised some questions about the Fisheries Department's allocation of experimental abalone fishing quotas in the Eastern Cape. Questions raised included who was allocated permits and how these were allocated, particularly as there has not been an open and public permit application and allocation process. There is no known Gazette inviting experimental permit applications as is normally done.  Feike has received information that seems to suggest that the allocation of abalone permits in the Eastern Cape certainly warrants investigation and for the department to provide answers. For example, it is suggested that 9 tons of abalone in the Jeffreys Bay area has been handed to 3 divers from Hawston in the Western Cape.  The Fisheries Minister should be asked to provide details concerning how the experimental permits were allocated and the names and details of every person allocated a permit. In any case, the Director-General of DAFF ought to m...

It has emerged that the National Department of Public Works has committed R100 million to the rehabilitation of the small fishing harbours in the Western Cape. There are 11 in the Western Cape and 1 in the Northern Cape. It is clear that the R100 million being spent over the next three years will largely attend to urgent and serious structural failures and collapses as well as cosmetic upgrades to these harbours. So does this mean that these harbours should NOT be removed from the control of the Fisheries department (as well as the National Public Works department) as has been suggested? Well obviously not. Here are some reasons why. Firstly, of course, both departments of public works and fisheries have been described by their respective political heads as departments mired by maladministration, corruption and dysfunction! Brilliant.  Secondly, the fact that the harbours were allowed to be degraded to such levels before money was committed to fix them is reaso...

Timeslive reports that an oil spill slick is heading toward the Eastern Cape coastline and neither the Department of Environmental Affairs nor the Department of Fisheries (who is supposed to be in charge of our patrol vessels which are equipped with anti-oil pollution gear and materials) are even aware of it let alone poised to dealing with it.  Why on earth do we pay these people salaries again?

The South African pelagic fishing industry turned to an old friend this week to desperately seek the assistance of Norway to help the industry with the increasingly unlikely pelagic research cruise. The reality is that this cruise must commence by next week or South Africa will not have a second half anchovy TAC and possibly may not have a pilchard TAC for 2013. This would certainly destroy billions of rands in commercial turnover and threaten some 12,000 jobs in the pilchard and anchovy sectors. This is in addition to the 5000 jobs the Minister has directly jeopardised in the hake trawl fisheries by not allowing the hake research cruise to take place. It is mind boggling that President Zuma and the Minister in the Presidency, Trevor Manuel, who chairs the National Planning Commission with its lofty ideals of "sustainability, job creation and poverty reduction" can allow the Fisheries Minister to wantonly ruin one great commercial fishery after another. We reasse...

On 31 May 2012, Feike, together with members of the South African fishing industry and representatives of the artisinal fishing sector met with members of the National Planning Commission, chaired by Minister Trevor Manuel. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the state of the South African fishing industry and how commercial and small scale artisinal fisheries can contribute to the four themes of the National Development Plan and Vision 2030. The four themes are sustainability, poverty reduction, reduction of inequality and job creation.  The Commission confirmed that "sustainability" was considered the paramount theme as without resource sustainability, the remaining three objectives are unattainable. Feike suggested that of even greater importance than sustainability is governance and that the current governance crisis in fisheries in turn destroys sustainability. By way of example, we noted the how the maladministration of the interim relief process has destroye...

This statement was issued by the Democratic Alliance, explaining why it is necessary that our fishing harbours be rescued from the dysfunction that defines DAFF currently.  National government is inadequately equipped to deal with the management of the 12 small fishing harbours in the Western Cape. It should cede this responsibility to local government as per Schedule 4 (B) of the Constitution. Small harbour management currently falls under the jurisdiction of the National Departments of Public Works and Fisheries. Earlier this year, the DA asked a parliamentary question about whether government has made any progress in restoring sound management to these harbours (given the commissioning of a report in 2007 with very clear recommendations). The reply to our question revealed that, five years on, no progress has been made to restore these dilapidated harbours.  The report cost the taxpayer R4.8 million. It was commissioned by the Department of Fisheries in 2007, ...