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During the course of my three month appointment as Chairperson of Minister Zokwana's West Coast rock lobster appeals advisory team charged with advising on the more than 2000 appeals submitted to the Minister for decisions, it became apparent that the Fisheries Management Branch had strangely decided to declare applicants for fishing rights who passed away either just before or after submitting fishing right applications persona non grata and summarily refused their applications.  Although my advices to the department that follow below were intended for the consumption of my client's staff, it has become evidently clear that a staff member who was a recipient of various such "confidential" advices and documents shared these with her partner who coincidentally is employed by a large South African fishing group. I have seen the evidence of this unlawful conduct on whatsapp chats. Even though these patently unlawful and corrupt communique's have been shared with...

On 16 October 2018, the SA Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, completed the process of deciding 1741 appeals in South Africa's West Coast rock lobster (WCRL) nearshore commercial fishery. By 30 August 2018 - less than 30 days after having been appointed - the Minister issued his decisions on 272 appeals filed by the WCRL offshore fishery appellants. In total, 2013 appeals were considered, evaluated and decided over a period of 60 days.  The Minister's official decisions and his record setting out the reasons for his decisions on the appeals filed in the WCRL nearshore fishery (ZONE F)  have now been made public on the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ' website.  A total of 739 appeals in Zone F were filed against the initial decisions taken by the Deputy Director-General: Fisheries Management in her capacity as the Delegated Authority on 31 July 2017.  As is the case with the WCRL Offshore, the nearshore co...

The SA Minister of Fisheries has issued his decisions on appeals filed by nearshore (hoop net) west coast rock lobster fishers. The decisions are recoded zonally in accordance with the geographic distribution of the WCRL from Port Nolloth (Zone A) to Zone F (Kleinmond/Hermanus/Gansbaai). The decisions for Zone F are anticipated next week. What is recorded below are the decisions for fishing Zones A to E. Zone A: Decision Sheet   Appeals GPR  Zone B: Decision Sheet Appeals GPR Zone C: Decision Sheet Appeals GPR  Zone D: Decision Sheet  Appeals GPR Zone E: Decision Sheet  Appeals GPR 

The recent unlawful and irregular allocation of boat-based whale watching and white shark cage diving permits has demonstrated a narrow-mindedness to destroy South Africa's two most successful eco-tourism sectors second to none.  Feike has served as the legal advisor to the South African Boat-Based Whale Watching Association (SABBWWA) and the Great White Shark Protection Foundation that represents the majority of shark diving operations in the country of some time and a number of historical operators summarily lost their operating permits to new entrant applicants who have no resources, client access, vessels, websites, or ability to operate a whale watching or shark cage diving operation.  Of course, the need to allow new entrants and even additional permit holders is a legitimate way of growing the economy particularly in these non-consumptive sectors whose success is determined by the number of foreign and domestic tourists willing to come aboard an operator's vess...

Over the past few months we have seen two large transactions concluded involving the procurement of wild fish quotas worth more than R230 million.  The first one to be approved this year by the Competition Tribunal and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries involved the effective buy-out of Talhado Fishing Enterprises by Premier Fishing in the squid sector. The Talhado transaction was particularly well-timed given the recent recovery of squid stocks and vastly improved fishing conditions (including prices) and the current depressed South African currency. Premier's purchase of Talhado's squid interests gives it effective control over some 20% of the total fishing effort available in the SA squid industry and just under 25% of the South African squid export market share.  The purchase of Viking Fishing's entire portfolio of fishing quotas by the Sea Harvest Consortium Group is a substantially more complex and important transaction for South African fi...

Subsequent to President Ramaphosa's 2018 State of the Nation Address on Friday last week, his mention of the need to reduce the size of his Cabinet has led to some interesting speculation about the possible reconfiguration of the environment-related government departments. In 2009, President Zuma split fisheries and oceans management between two separate departments (DAFF and DEA, respectively) despite all expert and academic advice that to do so would cause more harm to fisheries and oceans governance. Not to mention that splitting oceans and fisheries governance would be in direct contradiction to the domestic and international recognition that oceans and fisheries governance required integration, not disintegration. Ideally, I believe that an efficient and effective administration responsible for regulating the environment (within the context of the Bill of Rights) would entail the creation of a single super environment ministry with deputy ministers responsible for overseei...

In December 2016, the South African government took the brave step of expanding the South African horse mackerel fishery by granting fishing rights to new entrants for the first time this century. The last time mackerel rights were allocated back in 2005, it was decided to maintain the status quo in a bid to support the investments made up to then (including the introduction of a large Russian flagged mid-water trawl owned and operated by the Oceana Group) and on the understanding that the crop of right holders would begin to change the manner in which horse mackerel was fished, processed and marketed. Over the duration of the long term fishing period, nothing in fact changed. The fishery continues to be dominated by a limited number of vessels (1 midwater trawler and a handful of hake trawlers that also target horse mackerel for their owners). On-land processing remains almost non-existent with minimal jobs created in factories in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. So, when 27 new entr...

After more than five years of negotiations, UN state members agreed at the end of 2017 to draw up a new rulebook by 2020, which will establish conservation areas, catch quotas and scientific monitoring in terms of an internationally binding treaty to protect and regulate the High Seas.  The waters outside national maritime boundaries – which cover half of the planet’s surface – are currently a free-for-all that has led to devastating overfishing and pollution. The 2017 UN vote was supported by 140 nations, which is more than the two-thirds needed for passage to authorise the commencement of substantive negotiations on the text for a Law of the High Seas Treaty. The conclusion of a High Seas Treaty would mark the most significant development of oceans management since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas in December 1982. The UN will now host four meetings over the next two years to draft a legally binding treaty.  Only 3.5% of the world’s oceans...