Radical call to save rock lobster
LOCAL fishing bodies and associations say the government should suspend all fishing rights of West Coast Rock Lobster until authorities take “radical remedial action” to put the red-listed fishery back on a sustainable path.
SANParks earlier this week announced that the Two Oceans Restaurant, situated within its Cape Point premises, depleted all holding stocks crayfish and will no longer sell the species in the restaurant until such time as its population recovered.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) South Africa, illegal fishing and a continued failure to allocate all fishers secure longterm rights, were among the challenges currently threatening the existence of the fishery.
WWF SA along with Masifundise, Coastal Links, and the South African United Fishers Front have also called for a reduction of the 2016/17 total allowable catch to 1 270 tons as recommended by the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries’ own scientists and managers.
WWF’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative programme manager Pavitray Pillay said, if the current trend was left continued, there would be no West Coast Rock Lobster fishery in the coming years.
Masifundise’s director Naseegh Jaffer, said: “It not easy to support a call to suspend the fishery but we feel compelled to do so as fishers have fought hard for the right to catch lobster as part of the livelihood activities of smallscale fishing communities.”
South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association secretary Johann Augustyn said: “In our view, the department should follow the scientific advice and reduce the total allowable catch to the
Illegal fishing challenging future existence of species
level recommended… “Even though immediate closure is possibly required to reassess the situation, we are not sure that this is feasible, since it is unlikely that government will have the funds available to provide compensation.”
The department did not respond before deadline.