Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
‘S
OMETIMES you catch a lot, sometimes you catch a little, and sometimes you catch none… I don’t know when last we had nice fish” says skipper Abduragheem Rykliff.
Wynberg resident Rykliff, 39,entered the family business after finishing matric, and has been fishing for 22 years. He is part of a group of trek-net fishermen who operate on Fish Hoek beach from 6am to 6pm, seven days a week.
With Easter approaching, the demand for fish increases, but Rykliff concedes they last caught fish in December.
Asked how he supports his family during the months that they don’t catch many fish, Rykliff sheepishly replies, “Aah we survive… we survive”.
Fishermen are allowed to take home “fries”, a small quantity of fish for their families. More sizeable catches are sold to clients who sell to bigger companies such as I&J, and the public at Kalk Bay harbour.
The fisherman’s average day starts with packing of the net and hundreds of metres of rope into a rowing boat at about 6am. It is packed in a specific way to avoid tangling the nets, floats and weights.
A land skipper who is stationed at a high vantage point on the mountain slope signals to the fishermen (by means of a flag) on the beach when he spots a school of fish.
Once the message has been received, the fishermen drop what they are doing and, with impeccable precision, teamwork and co-ordination, lift and carry the boat using two long poles (attached to straps underneath the boat) into the ocean.
Rykliff, with a couple of the men, row’s in the direction of the fish. They cast the net in a crescent shape around the school. The one end of the net is attached to a long rope secured by the fishermen on the shore. The men in the boat then row toward the shore with the other end of the net, maintaining the crescent shape formation around the fish.
The fishermen pull the (often empty) net toward the shore. A successful attempt reveals the flutter of yellow flapping tails and white waters, glistening in the distance as the trapped (mostly) yellowtail catch struggle against the net.
When the net is around 70m from the shore, the crowd on the beach notice a large fish thrashing around in the net. A bystander attempts to engage a fisherman in a bet that the fish caught in the net is a shark. He wants two yellowtails if he is right, but offers no wager to his opponent if he is wrong.
One of the fishermen, Simon Freemantle, removes his T-shirt and wades into the ocean to rescue the intruder in the net. The large, flat object is a sun fish.
The rescuer struggles for 40 minutes after freeing the sunfish from the net to get it heading in the right direction out to sea. Once the net is ashore and in shallow water, fishermen and bystanders grapple to capture the fish and load it into a van parked on the beach.
The fishermen and willing spectators work together with an unspoken acknowledgement that each have a common purpose, which is to provide for their families.
It is not uncommon to see a fisherman crouch down and encourage a toddler to hold a fish, or educate a child on how to hold a crab without getting pinched.
No sooner has the yellowtail-laden van driven off, than the men are already untangling the net and readying the boat for the land skipper’s next signal to launch.
Dr Stephen J Lamberth, from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), said: “Fish Hoek ‘trek-net’ fishers can claim historical or traditional right of access to the beach and to catch yellowtail, harders and other ‘linefish’ species provided that they have a commercial Beach-seine right.
“Every 10-15 years, rights are allocated after a rigorous Fisheries Rights Allocation Process (FRAP),” he added.
“The yellowtail population recovered from collapse in the 1970-’80s, and is currently optimally exploited. Fishing effort (number of fishers and boats in the traditional commercial line and beachseine fisheries) has been reduced such that catches are now sustainable.”