Open fishing areas have little impact on Tsitsikamma park

THE partial opening of the Tsitsikamma Marine Protected Area (MPA) to fishing has had almost zero effect on the stability of the area, according to Garden Route National Park manager Paddy Gordon.

Gordon was responding last week to a question about the effect of the controversial December 2016 declaration by Environment Minister Edna Molewa to open 20% of the MPA to fishing.

Established in 1964, the Tsitsikamma MPA – Africa’s oldest marine protected area – protects 11 of South Africa’s 17 threatened fish species.

Opposing the minister’s declaration, the marine science and conservation sectors said the move would undermine the stability of the populations of these species that had flourished in the protected area.

Spearheaded by the Friends of Tsitsikamma – which was headed by the late Dr Robbie Robertson, a former SANParks chief executive – the group said the area was a public asset and the minister had ignored the outcry around the issue.

Molewa’s move was supported, however, by the Tsitsikamma Angling Forum.

The organisation argued that their members had been unfairly denied access to the area when the protected area was declared and, in February 2016, warned “if the community do not get access to the sea they cannot guarantee the safety of tourists”.

Gordon said SANParks scientists had started monitoring the use of the protected area by local communities, and the impact on it, right after the minister’s declaration.

“At this stage the number of anglers registered, the number of days that fishermen accessed the MPA, and the number of fish caught is exceptionally lower than was anticipated. It indicates almost zero impact on the MPA.”

He said the controlled zones where fishing was allowed were far away from the Tsitsikamma rest camps of Storm’s River and De Vasselot in Nature’s Valley. “Visitors to the camp do not interact with anglers at all.” In terms of ensuring management, the park had added rangers, monitors and monitoring equipment, a new patrol vessel and other equipment to its budget, he said.