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The Daily Dispatch reports that China has officially stated that its arrested fishing vessels were fishing legally and had the necessary permits and China was seeking "p rompt and appropriate settlement” of the investigation “in line with the friendship and cooperation between our countries”. While it is clear that the arrested fishing vessels,  the MFV Fu Yuan Yu 7880, MFV Fu Yang Yu 7881 & MFV Run Da 617, are authorised by the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation to harvest fish in the South Pacific Convention Area only.  These vessels are authorised to use pole and line gear when fishing in the Convention Area waters. This High Seas fishing license certainly does not authorise these vessels to enter South African waters and more importantly does not permit these vessels to fish in SA waters. As none of the arrested vessels had section 39 licenses issued by the Fisheries Department under the Marine Living Resources Act to enter our EEZ, the vesse...

What if our famed West Coast Rock lobster is downgraded to SASSI's Red List? Or should the question instead read "When..."? Will that save lobster stocks from complete decimation? What will the socio-economic consequences be? Of course, strictly speaking that is not SASSI's mandate or direct concern. SASSI's colour coding of fish stocks is determined by the biological and ecological health of the fishery concerned. However, given that our lobster stocks have been sitting at between 3% and 2% of pristine for some time now, that SASSI had not red listed lobster a few years ago, confirms that the organisation is indeed mindful of the socio-economic impacts of red-listing such a crucial small-commercial fishery.  Indeed, if abalone has been on the red list for years now, why has lobster similarly not been classified as red?  The reality is that while placing lobster on the red list may have little to no consequences for the export-driven offshore commerci...

So what do we know to date about the "Chinese" named but apparently flag-less vessels spotted in SA  waters?  According to the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Zokwana, the fleet of brand new fishing vessels were sailing to the Congo from China. Apparently, they were new-build vessels for an unnamed Angolan fishing company.  It would appear that after they were intercepted by the EPV Lilian Ngoyi in South African waters near the Bird Island Group MPA, the fleet received instructions from the owners to split up and ignore all instructions from South African authorities proceed to port.  The result is that an estimated 8 vessels have escaped while 1 vessel has been arrested and is presently in Table Bay Harbour.  What is apparent is that these fishing vessels entered the SA EEZ without having first been given permission to do so under the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998. That would amount to a violation of section 39 of the MLRA. A violation of section...

On 8 March 2016, the Fisheries Minister announced his provisional set of appeal decisions in the traditional line fishery. Of the 564 appeals considered, the Minister decided to provisionally  grant line fish rights to -  169 appellants in Zone A; 22 appellants in Zone B; and 15 appellants in Zone C.  The provisional decisions were issued for public comment and scrutiny until 28 March 2016. The Minister appointed the forensic audit firm, Sizwe Ntsaluba & Gobodo Inc ("SNG"), to oversee the provisional list and comment process. During the "provisional list" process, the Minister received 127 comments and complaints in total.   The appeals advisory team has been briefed on all investigations undertaken and completed by SNG. The appeals advisory team will be spending the remaining time this week finalising the recommendations to be presented to the Minister, whereafter the Minister will consider the appeals and issue his final set of decisions on the ...