What is the Status of SA's Whale Watching and Shark Cage Diving Permits

South Africa's boat based whale watching and shark cage diving sectors are each represented by industry bodies formally recognised and authorised to represent members under the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998, which is the law governing whale watching and shark cage diving. The whale watching industry is represented by the SA Boat-Based Whale Watching Industry and the shark cage diving sector by the Great White Shark Protection Foundation. Feike is an advisor to both bodies.

The department responsible for these two sectors is the Department of Environmental Affairs. In early 2015, Industry representatives met with officials from DEA to remind them that permits in both sectors were set to expire at the end of June 2016 for the whale watching sector and at the end of August for the white shark diving sector. Industry offered to assist where possible with preparations for the permit re-allocation and renewal process. Both the whale watching and shark cage diving sectors undertook at their own cost substantive socio-economic surveys of their respective sectors and membership profiles. These surveys profiled members in areas such as black empowerment, investments in assets such as markets, boats, people and brands, areas that restricted growth, employment, profiles of tourists that undertake these eco-activities and tourist spend.

With two weeks to go before the whale watching permits are set to expire, DEA has confirmed that it has extended the validity of the whale watching sector and shark cage diving sector permits for another 12 months, valid until 30 June and 30 August 2017, respectively.

So, it is official, all SA whale watching and shark cage diving will continue beyond June 2016. Dont cancel your bookings .... please! 

For the list of permitted and authorised boat-based whale watching operators see the 
SABBWWA site here. 







For the list of permitted and authorised white shark cage diving operators, see the Foundation's site here.

In Summary: The FRAP 2013 Appeals

My next Maritime Review Africa article will provide a summation of the FRAP 2013 appeals process, including an analysis of the line fish appeals process that led to the publication of the Minister's final traditional line fish decisions in May 2016 . The FRAP 2013 appeals process took 10 months to conclude, highlighting that such administrative processes, if undertaken legally and diligently, take substantial planning and time. To rush these processes only causes significant harm to both the fishing industry and communities, on the one hand, and to the overseeing regulator - DAFF.

My article addresses the key mechanisms and processes that were implemented when evaluating and deciding the 567 traditional line fish appeals in particular. The article also addresses where the decisions leave the small-scale community-based fishing sector process and how the additional anticipated effort from these communities could conceivably be accommodated without decimating staple line fish species in each of the 3 main management zones. 

The article concludes with a summary of key FRAP 2013 appeals data, including the number of successful appeals by sector and the final black ownership profile of the successful appellants. The headline appeal numbers for the 8 fisheries are as follows.

"Over the 10-month appeals evaluation process, the Minister considered and decided a total of 1038 appeals. Of these, 333 appellants (or 32%) were successful. The average black economic empowerment profile of the 8 fisheries post the appeals stands at 66.57%."

The article will be available here shortly.