50 Years of sea fishing left?

[mancombseepgood]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6108414.stm

 

[bwana]

lol - I thought a yeard was pirate-speak.

 

[mancombseepgood]

Lol... must be the Scurvy gettin to me timbers

 

[moklet]

But it is bad, we are slowly but surely destroying our planet for our future generation

 

[bwana]

Well that's an irresponsible fishing industry hard at work plundering the seas.

 

[antowan]

Thread title fixed. Yeard now = years...

 

[surface]

And to think that no one ever thanks vegetarian people like me, talk about ingratitude in the world. *sigh* *groan* *sulk* Remember, without us, this 50 years could have been 30. )

 

[icyrus]

But it is bad, we are slowly but surely destroying our planet for our future generation

I wouldn't say that. Its more like changing the planet in a way that may eventually be detrimental to our survival. The planet, and life, will go on without us.

 

[BTTB]

50 Years?

Here in South Africa the Fishing Industry has been going downhill since the 1950's and before. But the last 10 years have been the worst.

Many of the big Fishing Companies are for sale if you want to buy them.
I have heard that I&J's Hake Quotas have been cut so much that the bulk of the Companies Trawlers are fishing off Australia and Argentina as it is not economically viable to operate here any more.

The Department of Environmental Affairs are sitting with a Double Edged Sword.
They have been steadily Transforming the Industry for the last decade which has complicated matters quite somewhat.
The Transformation couldn't have happened at a worse time in the country's Fishing History as the lessening Fish Stocks compounded with the new entrants into the Industry have put even more pressure on the resource.
Everybody wants to make a living, but there isn't enough to go around.

As 80% of South Africa's Fishing Industry resides in the Western Cape it has brought even more complications, as the transformation that the Department has imposed is actually giving rights to people from other areas like the Eastern Cape who have never been fisherman or even been to sea in the first place.
Historically the Fishing Industry comprised mainly Coloured and White people in the Western Cape.

Over the years the Fishing Industry and the quotas that have been given were quite contrary as well.
Even people that were Lawyers living in Gauteng got quotas, as the Allocation of Rights were given to who knew how to work the system and put in the correct paperwork. Probably also who they knew that worked in the Department as well had a lot to do with it?

Things have changed, but not for the better.
The New Entrants are not making it.
The Whites that had rights lost most or all of their rights, and the few that still have Fishing Rights had to give 30% or more of their business to BEE Partners in order to do so.
The coloured people are still sitting with basically very little and a handful managed to keep what they had.

Here and there some sectors of the Fishing Industry are doing OK, but overall the Industry is in dire straights.

The 2 Main Sectors of our Fishing Industry, namely Hake and Crayfish have for all intense and purposes collapsed, or on the brink of collapse.

From time to time there are runs of migratory fish like Yellowtail, Snoek, Cob and Cape Salmon. But also in less and less quantities.
When the fish do run there are literally hundreds of boats all eagerly trying to catch from those shoals and hence the shoals of fish do not stay in one area for a long period of time like they used to, as the noise of all the boats on their heads is scaring them off.
Also the cost of looking for where the fish are is expensive. It costs hundreds of Rands of Petrol or Diesel to take a boat to sea to find fish. If you do not find fish for that day you have to absorb that cost.

There are many other factors that are influencing the Fishing Industry.
It is a bit complicated to explain and one should talk to the real fisherman in the old fishing harbours as they will explain the situation like it is.
The Department puts on this Grand Face, but in all earnest they are part of the problem as they do not understand the Fishing Industry. And staff that were worth their salt are not in employ there any more and we have green employees who know nothing about a quite complex Industry.

There are some good Scientists working for the Department that are allocating the TAC (Total Allowable Catch). They have the hardest task of telling the Minister and his people how much we can catch for any given year.
But that is not enough. I have heard that some of these people have left as well. So I am not sure who decides how much fish we can catch in any given year.

A Complex Industry where everyone thinks they know the answers.
The fact of the matter is that there are less fish and more fisherman or more people pretending to be fisherman.

 

[xtermin8or]

Something must be done, remember when I visited the Kwazulu coast last year, sat down in a pub with a couple of fishermen, and it felt like something out of Rick Steins - Fruits of the Sea - they all complained that they get nowhere near the quantity of fish they used to, and no-ones doing anything about it - also travelled to Malawi earlier this year, you can't get the delicious Chamba - excuse the spelling - fish anywhere - it's all been fished out

 

[baasvandieplaas]

There is this brilliant saying from the indians (the ones the americans culled)

Only when the last tree has been cut down
Only when the last fish has been caught
Only when the last deer has been killed

Only then will man realise that money can not be eaten

 

[mancombseepgood]

Have heard of guys (not talking illegal trawlers, but individuals) making in excess of R50 000 per weekend using gully netting techniques... very manual method, but obviously lucrative.

p.s. Thanks Ant!

 

[BTTB]

Feike

FEIKE

Marine Regulatory Law and Environmental Management Advisors

Local Firm based in Cape Town since 2001.

 

[BTTB]

No money for patrol boats

No money for patrol boats

Cape Town - South Africa's four new marine patrol vessels, bought at a cost to the taxpayer of close to half a billion rand, are spending more time in port then they ought to because Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) cannot afford to run them.

No fish, so what is the point?

Briefing members on the status of the Marine Living Resources Fund (MLRF), created to pay for the operating costs of the new vessels, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk admitted planning at the time a decision was taken to buy them had gone awry.

"On the expenditure side, there we have the huge challenge of the vessels, and especially the operational costs."

This was a very difficult challenge, he said, seemingly laying the blame for the problem with the previous management of MCM.

"You receive advice and a model from people who are supposed to know what the costs will be, but it turned out that it was not the correct model that MCM relied on at that stage," Van Schalkwyk said.

Previous Management. Some of whom are now part of FEIKE AFAIK.

Not entirely sure what the heck is going on, but the Department has made a right royal F...up with the Fishing Industry.

The Minister trying to pass the buck with the cost of the vessels.
But the main figure to receive and welcome the new Protection Vessel last year.
SA takes delivery of the good ship Sarah Baartman

As far as I am concerned Van Schalckwyk has cost the Western Cape untold amounts of money from the day he played politics with the City of Cape Town to gain his current Ministerial position.
Now he has made his mark on the poor fishing folk as well.

They may as well ask him to leave, as his Department is Dysfunctional and Bankrupt to boot.