Decisions by Minister Senzeni Zokwana on appeals lodged in the Tuna Pole Fishery
The purpose of this media statement issued by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Senzeni Zokwana, is to inform the South African public and the tuna fishing industry in particular of the Minister’s decisions on appeals filed against decisions taken on 30 December 2013 in the tuna pole fishery (“the tuna fishery”).
The Minister’s appeals advisory team, comprising Adv. Shaheen Moolla, Prof. Julian Smith and Ms. Mamakhe Mdhluli met between 20 July 2015 and 31 July 2015 to consider and evaluate the appeals filed in the tuna pole fishery. Subsequent to the closure of the supplementary appeals process on 31 July 2015, the appeals team met again between 3 & 4 August 2015 and again between 28 October 2015 and 3 November 2015 to consider the 12 supplementary appeals that were filed and to finalise the recommendations in this fishery.
On Tuesday 3 November 2015, Minister Senzeni Zokwana was briefed by his appeals advisory team on the 88 appeals that were filed by appellants in the tuna fishery. On Wednesday 4 November 2015, Minister Zokwana decided the appeals in the tuna pole fishery.
Background
As stated above, 88 applicants had filed appeals against the decision of the Acting Deputy Director-General: Fisheries Management (“the DDG”) to either refuse them a tuna pole fishing right or in cases where applicants were successful, against the DDG’s decision to allocate a specific number of vessels. Of these 88 appeals, 31 are from right holder applicants and 57 from new entrant applicants.
Of the 57 new entrant appellants, 8 are appeals concerning applications from co-operatives, 3 from individuals and 1 from a trust. Trusts and Individuals were not permitted to apply for a tuna pole fishing right in terms of the Tuna Pole Fishery Policy: 2013. These applications were deemed to have been improperly lodged and the appeals are refused accordingly.
The appeals by the 8 co-operatives could not succeed either for the reason that co-operatives cannot at present lawfully acquire and hold a section 18 commercial fishing right. Co-operatives may eventually be capable of being holders of commercial and small-scale commercial fishing rights should the Marine Living Resources Act, Second Amendment Act of 2014, be signed into law by the President of the Republic. Until this Second Amendment Act comes into force, the Minister is precluded from granting fishing rights to co-operatives.
The Minister also points out that he had applied the policy that appellants had to demonstrate access to a suitable tuna pole fishing vessel as a peremptory requirement. Failure to demonstrate access to a suitable vessel was considered an exclusionary criterion in terms of the Tuna Fishery Policy of 2013.
In particular, the requirement that nominated vessels had to be commercial fishing vessels as opposed to luxury yachts, recreational vessels or recreational charter vessels was applied. In addition, nominated vessels had to have a valid SAMSA certificate as at the date of the fishing right application.
The Minister has requested that the DDG institute section 28 investigations against all those current right holders who were granted fishing rights in this fishery despite not having demonstrated access to a suitable fishing vessel and who continue to either under-utilise or not utilise their fishing permits.
The Minister wishes to emphasise that fishing performance by right holders in this fishery is particularly important to South Africa’s national and regional fisheries interests because it is ultimately our ability to successfully catch and land our internationally set pro-rata tuna allocations that will determine our future tuna catch allowances, which are set at ICCAT, CCSBT and IOTC, respectively.
The Tuna Pole Fishery
The tuna pole fishery is considered to be one of the most “green” fisheries in the world as tunas are harvested using the extremely selective method of poling resulting in little to no by-catch at all. The South African tuna pole fishery targets albacore and yellow fin tunas in both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
The tuna fishing season commences on 1 October and continues until the end of May. As tunas are highly migratory species, the South African fishery is ultimately managed by a number of Regional Fishery Management Organisations (RFMO’s), including CCSBT, ICCAT and IOTC, which determine global and country quota allocations.
Due to biological concerns about the health of Atlantic Albacore stocks, ICCAT recently reduced South Africa’s albacore tuna allocation from 5000 tons to 4400 tons. SA consequently reduced its vessel effort limitation from 200 vessels to 163 vessels (as per current season’s total applied effort (TAE)). However, due to an array of biological and economic factors, the number of active vessels in this fishery has averaged 130 vessels as such the TAE reduction did not directly impact our fishery or employment levels in the fishery.
The Minister’s decisions on co-operative applicants
Before addressing the Minister’s decision on the 88 appeals, the Minister has elected to decide the applications lodged by co-operatives in this fishery. On 30 December 2013, the DDG at the time decided to reserve his decision on the applications filed by 19 co-operatives. The Minister has decided to refuse each of these applications for the reason that as at the date of the application, co-operatives could not lawfully apply for, acquire or hold a section 18 fishing right in terms of the MLRA. This prohibition continues to apply until such time as the Second MLRA Amendment Act comes into force as stated above.
Each affected co-operative will be duly notified in writing of this decision.
The Minister’s decisions on appeals
The Minister decided to grant the appeals of 36 of the 88 appellants. Of the 36 successful appellants, 20 are right holder appellants and 16 are new entrant appellants. The complete record of the Minister’s decisions is appended hereto as Appendix A.
The Minister wishes to highlight that the finalization of the appeals process in this fishery has substantially bolstered black economic empowerment and transformation. Prior to the allocation of the current long term fishing rights in the tuna pole fishery, the percentage of black-owned right holders in the fishery stood at 54%. This has now increased to an impressive 69%.
The Minister’s decisions will result in the introduction of an additional 23 vessels to the fishery, which will result in the vessel TAE for this fishery increasing from 133 vessels to 156 vessels. The crew allocations to each successful appellant are based on the maximum crew allowance as per the SAMSA safety certificate for each applicable vessel.
The Minister has directed that the 7 latent rights (vessels) remain available for allocation to those right holders who may wish to introduce a new vessel to the fishery as it is the Minister’s objective to encourage fishing performance and consequently job creation in this fishery.
Each Appellant will be provided with written notification of the Minister’s decision, as well as a copy of the Regulation 5(3) Appeal Report pertaining to its appeal.
Enquiries:
Bomikazi Molapo
Minister’s Spokesperson
Cell: 078 801 3711
Email: BomikaziM@daff.gov.za
