History will judge DAFF if it fails to protect West Coast rock lobster

ON JANUARY 11, the Cape Times published my op-ed titled “SA seen to be stumbling from one fisheries controversy to another”. One of the controversies referred to in that article was the decision by the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries to override the scientifically based recommendation for the West Coast rock lobster total allowable catch (TAC) for the 2016/2017 fishing season and to set a considerably higher catch limit.

The recent and ongoing protests by small-scale and nearshore fishers provoked by concerns about possible reductions in the allocations of West Cost rock lobster in the 2017/2018 season, demonstrate that unfortunately little has changed in the department since that op-ed piece was published.

The protests centre on two interrelated issues: the total allowable catch of rock lobster for the coming season and how that will be allocated between the small-scale, nearshore commercial and offshore commercial sub-sectors.

The responses so far by the department to these demands have been worrying. In a media statement issued by the department on September 13, it declared that “the importance of maintaining or even increasing the yields from these fisheries by sustainable harvesting and sound management that balances science and socio-economic parameters is of great importance…”, while GroundUp and the Daily Maverick on September 22 reported the deputy director-general of the fisheries branch as having said: “We want to keep the TAC where it is and drastically increase law enforcement (to cut down poaching and over-catching).”

The first of the two statements reflects a misunderstanding of the nature and importance of the formal scientific advice on the sustainable limit for harvesting, while the second, if correctly reported, fails to appreciate that poaching must be reduced before any increase in the TAC can even be contemplated.

Coming from the department responsible for ensuring sustainable use of the nation’s living marine resources, both are disturbing.

Wilfully allowing overexploitation of the West Coast rock lobster or any other of the nation’s marine living resources not only contravenes the constitution (Section 24 of the Bill of Rights) and the Marine Living Resources Act, but also violates South Africa’s international commitments and obligations to conserve living resources and use them sustainably.

Rock lobster is a vital resource for thousands of fishers on the West Coast and it would be a disaster for them, as well as for the ecosystem, if the department allowed this already threatened species to decline further. The goal must be the opposite: to allow the stock to recover, while still allowing as much fishing as it can safely sustain.

For the department to fulfil its social, economic and ecological mandate for this species and the dependent fisheries, four key steps are necessary:

It is to the department’s credit that it has an excellent scientific working group on rock lobster that includes participation from the fishing sector and the department’s resource managers. Senior management must respect and adhere to the scientific advice on the TACs coming from that group.

Vague promises that controls will be increased in the future are insufficient. An important lesson can be learnt from the local abalone fishery. Eight years ago, the commercial abalone fishery was reopened following a commitment that poaching would be reduced by 15% per year. Despite that commitment since then, poaching has instead increased by some 400%.

The department should urgently convene a working group of stakeholders in this fishery, including representatives from the three sub-sectors to discuss the allocation of the scientifically based TAC between them.

Finding a win-win solution with the lobster stock in its current poor condition is unlikely, but that group may be able to identify options that are consistent with the goals of South Africa’s fisheries policy, while minimising harm to those who bear the brunt of the necessary reductions in some quotase.

The West Coast rock lobster resource could well be at a tipping point.

History will judge whether the department was able to provide the leadership and guidance to reverse the current decline.

Cochrane is a professor in ichthyology and fisheries science at Rhodes University and was previously a director in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, Italy