As the application process for long term rights gets well and truly underway, suddenly there seems to be a more pronounced flurry of monitoring and control activity, court cases and a general tightening of legislation. The message is clear: shape up or ship out. There is not enough fish in the sea to give quantum to everybody anyway.

In this issue we take a closer look at the small pelagics fishery. The timing was a bit unfortunate because the fishery falls into Cluster A and with the deadline looming most applicants were not particularly interested in spending even a few minutes with the press! Were companies and close corporations simply caught out because their financials were in disarray - or was it just that there was too much work involved for the short time they had to produce what was required? A resounding favourite was: why do they want all this information anyway? It sort of makes a mockery of the new paperless application process, doesn't it?

We did get to speak to some companies thankfully but for the most part came up against a wall of resistance to having both company and individuals' names published. The common belief is that anything said to upset the Department would jeopardise their application for a fishing right. So we reluctantly conceded to the requests but hasten to add that the articles do nevertheless make for interesting reading.

Meanwhile it is Cluster B's turn. The date for lodging applications has been extended to September 6 and 7. Applicants are already frustrated because according to one reader the website offers the facility to ask questions, but no answers are being provided. Dare we ask why this is the case?

As we went to press, fishermen and others who frequent the Oceana Power Boat Club in Cape Town will be interested to know that a year has passed and there has still been no resolution of the lease situation. The committee told members at its recent AGM that the V&A was giving them the run-around (as usual) and is currently in the process of completing a "scoping" exercise." Whatever this might mean, the fact is that the club still operates on a day-to-day basis and turnover has been negatively affected because in the last year there were exactly three snoek fishing days. Meanwhile, a social club membership (not for boat owners) is likely to be introduced to counter the drop in members from 500 to 200 since 2002. Basically it just buys you access to bar prices, and plenty of abuse from a generally very negative committee.

Some questions are better left unsaid and so to conclude I leave you a quotation to think about: "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment." - (L. Ron Hubbard).