Decisions by Minister on appeals lodged in the hake handline 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 hake handline fishing industry in particular of the Minister’s decisions on appeals filed against decisions taken on 30 December 2013 in the hake handline fishery (“the handline fishery”).
The Minister’s appeals advisory team, comprising Prof Julian Smith, Ms Mamakhe Mdhluli and Adv Shaheen Moolla (“the Appeals Team”) met between 4 August 2015 14 August and again between 1 and 9 December 2015 to consider and evaluate the appeals filed in the hake handline fishery.
Minister Senzeni Zokwana was briefed by his appeals advisory team on the 118 appeals that were filed by appellants in the handline fishery. Minister Zokwana subsequently decided the appeals in the handline fishery.
Background
There are a total of 118 appeals. Of these, 84 are by individuals and 34 by legal entity appellants. Of the 34 legal entity appellants, 3 are co-operatives. As co-operatives may not acquire or hold fishing rights under the Marine
Living Resources Act, these appellants’ respective appeals have been refused.
The SA Hake Handline Fishery
The South African hake handline fishery developed in the 1980’s targeting inshore shallow-water hakes. The fishery is a small-scale fishery that has historically been exploited by small boats along the Southern and Eastern Cape coasts as far north as Port Alfred.
While the fishery remained very lucrative during the 1990’s and until about 2006/2007, the changing nature of the international market into which the handline caught hake was sold and the biology of the resource resulted in a substantial contraction of the fishery.
Once shallow-water hake moved further offshore making it inaccessible to the fishery. In addition, European markets for PQ hake contracted substantially resulted in depressed prices, while operating costs (fuel and labour) increased forcing many right holders to abandon their hake handline fishing businesses.
The fishery currently operates for ±3 months of the year. However, given that hake are increasingly located in deeper waters, small boats will find accessing the fishing grounds difficult. The fishery is formally managed in terms of a total allowable catch of 5165 tons set in terms of section 14 of the Marine Living Resources Act. Between the 2006 and 2013, the TAC of ±5000 tons has never been fully landed and in fact less than 2500 tons was the average landing for each season over the period between 2007 and 2013.
The allocation of many hake handline fishing rights during the FRAP 2013 process to right holders with no boats and to those outside of the hake handline fishing zone has meant that the fishing effort in the fishery has been further reduced as these right holders are unable to harvest hake. The Minister’s concern however is that these right holders (at least those with vessels) are targeting line fish species such as snoek, kob and hottentot to the detriment of the traditional line fishery.
Of the 87 current right holders in the fishery, departmental records show that in 2014 only 24 right holders uplifted their permits. In 2015, this number declined to 21. Accordingly, only 24% of all right holders in this fishery are presently active and utilising their rights. This remains a concerning trend for the Minister as it means the fishery remains largely inactive with historical hake handline crew unemployed with few employment options available.
Minister’s decisions
The Minister has decided to grant hake handline fishing rights to a total of 23 appellants. This equates to an additional 291 crew rights and 26 fishing vessels. Of the 23 successful appellants, 12 are legal entity appellants and the remainder, individual fishers.
The black ownership profile of the fishery prior to the 30 December 2013 decision was 30%. The current black ownership profile of the fishery now stands at 79% for individual right holders and 46.7% for legal entity right holders.
Given the exceptionally poor permit activation rate in this fishery during 2014 and 2015, the Minister has instructed the department to undertake the following measures without delay:
- Commence with a socio-economic investigation aimed at understanding why so few hake handline fishing rights have been activated;
- Commence with a scientific study to determine whether the fishery remains suitable for small-scale fishing and vessels smaller than ±10m or whether the fishery should instead be considered a part-time commercial fishery that could provide greater economic support to squid operators using vessels larger than 11m in length and capable of targeting once shallow water hakes; and
- Issue section 28 notices to all those right holders who failed to apply for and uplift their hake handline fishing permits over the past 2 seasons. These section 28 notices and responses (if any) would directly inform the socio-economic investigation.
Small-scale fishers
Given that between 2006 and 2013, the 742 hake handline crew have never been able to harvest more than 2500 tons of hake in any one season, the Minister will be considering the viability of expanding this fishery by accommodating an additional 700 crew rights reserved exclusively for small- scale fishers and particularly those fishers that crew squid boats and who are domiciled in the Southern and Eastern Cape.
The intention of this expanded fishery will be to ensure that these squid fishing crew may continue harvesting fish and earning an income during the squid closed seasons or when squid fishing vessels are not operating.
The decision to expand this fishery will be taken by the Minister once the results of the socio-economic and scientific studies referred to above have been completed and the data analysed.
Each Appellant in this fishery 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
Cell: 078 801 3711
E-mail: BomikaziM@daff.gov.za
