Fishing pilot project in marine protected area gets reeled in

ENVIRONMENTAL Affairs Minister Edna Molewa undertook to immediately stop a pilot project in terms of which anglers who held permits were allowed to fish in the Tsitsikamma National Marine protected area in the Eastern Cape.

This undertaking was made an order of the high court in Pretoria yesterday by Judge Bill Prinsloo. He issued the order in chambers after the various parties had agreed to it.

Apart from revoking the pilot project, the minister will also immediately revoke all the licences issued to the fishermen which allowed them to angle during the pilot project.

This agreement and subsequent order followed an urgent application brought by Friends of the Tsitsikamma Association, which said the decision by the minister to allow the anglers to fish in this protected area from December 15 last year was unlawful since it was hastily implemented.

They said the decision taken by the minister was also procedurally unfair.

The association is concer ned about the impact of fishing in the area and said long-term damage to fish populations and related marine life will occur if the minister was not immediately interdicted from going ahead with the pilot project.

As the law stands at present, fishing within the Tsitsikamma Marine Park is not allowed as it is a protected area.

SANParks and the minister, however, decided to allow a group of residents within the park to fish, under controlled conditions and in certain areas.

They maintained that in allowing restricted fishing, it would test draft regulations intended to allow Tsitsikamma residents the right to fish in certain areas of the park on a permanent basis.

The public has until February 1 to comment on the draft regulations.

Bruce Mann, a member of the association, said in a statement before court that neither the minister nor SANParks were entitled to establish the pilot project, especially as fishing in this area is at present the subject of a public comment procedure.

“How the pilot project can be implemented without the public comment process following its course is beyond me,” he said.

Advocate Marius van Staden, acting for SANParks told Judge Prinsloo at the start of yesterday’s proceedings that his client undertook to immediately stop the entire pilot project.

Van Staden said his client did not want to be interdicted; it rather undertook to stop the project.

However, Judge Prinsloo commented that he did not consider this an appropriate resolution. “So you stop today only to start again tomorrow,” the judge questioned.

But Van Staden was adamant that the undertaking would mean the end of the entire project.

Counsel acting for the minister also confirmed that the project would be stopped.

Lawyers for Human Rights, which took on the plight of the fishermen, did not oppose the bid to have the pilot project stopped, although it would mean that they would no longer be able to fish in the area.

Lawyer Louise du Plessis said they would rather concentrate on the possible rezoning of areas in the park to allow for controlled fishing by the local population for sustainability.

Du Plessis said the local community was mainly poor and needed to fish so that they could place a meal on the table.

“My clients agree fully that this should be done in a controlled environment,” she said.

Du Plessis added that the local community was extremely grateful for the efforts by the minister and SANParks to possibly draft regulations which would allow them to fish in certain areas.

Meanwhile, two members of the fishing community, representing the others back home, were in court yesterday so that they could convey to their fellow anglers what transpired.

Henrico Bruiners and Shane Cunningham said the community back home was mostly poor.

“Although some had jobs, they get paid a pittance and they simply need to fish so they could put food on the table. We and our forefathers have been fishing here for decades. This stopped in 2000 when the area was proclaimed a national park,” Bruiners said.

According to him, the community agreed that fishing must be controlled, but he said under the pilot project they could only fish, with a permit, from the rocks.

“I’m not sure how the community back home will respond to the news that there is no more fishing here for now, as they are desperate,” Cunningham said.