The decision by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to close down the Abalone fishery was only a shock because it was so sudden. Right holders have in fact known for months that this was entirely likely given the state of the resource. Although to be fair they have not been given the opportunity to have their say. His timing was not good - making such an announcement just before the festive season gave rise to the image of Ebenezer Scrooge, the very cold-hearted, selfish man, who has no love for Christmas, children, or anything that even resembles happiness in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol.

The public's reaction was predictable. The Minister backtracked and agreed the fishery could stay open until 1 February, draft regulations to prohibit diving in certain areas to further protect the resource were recently gazetted, and the Minister is back in favour with the Small Scale fishers who attended a national Summit in Port Elizabeth in November. These fishers are still waiting to hear about the extension to the interim relief package afforded to them earlier this year, meanwhile the West Coast Rock Lobster Association has confirmed it has made its stand legally clear to the Minister and Marine and Coastal Management.

Coastal fishing communities will be benefiting for sure. Some R400 million has been allocated to improving the livelihoods of fishers living in these communities, and R100 million of this will be spent on establishing six marine aquaculture projects. However a message from the Aquaculture conference held alongside the Fish Africa exhibition in October is that while the opportunities are there, it is not going to be easy and ways of getting around the constraints are going to have to be found to achieve the potential of the aquaculture industry.

Developments in the Squid fishery have taken an interesting turn. One of these is that the MCM's Squid Working Group is under intense pressure to manage fishery resources using an ecosystem approach and a proposal tabled by scientists to extend the closed season by a further six weeks in order to reduce the effort on the resource, is under consideration. Read more about this on page 28.

Moving to Namibia, the horsemackerel industry virtually ground to a halt in November when seven vessels of the 10-strong fleet were recalled to Walvis Bay for allegedly contravening the Marine Resources Act of 2000. At the time of going to press we heard that the vessels were working again but nevertheless this experience serves as a valuable lesson to other fisheries to take cognisance that compliance is essential.

To conclude, what has been a very busy year the management and staff of George Warman Publications would like to thank you for your support during the year and we wish you a very pleasant festive season.
 

Editor.

Cover Story

Live Fish Tanks, situated in Jakobsbaai on the Cape West Coast, was founded in 1975. It is both SABS and HACCP approved and has in terms of the long term rights allocation process conformed to all BEE requirements. The factory, which processes West Coast Rock Lobster (Jasus Lalandii) species in live, frozen and cooked form, has an impressive 70 ton holding capacity for live Spiny Rock Lobster. As a result of its state-of-the-art bio-pack-out-system it has the lowest mortality rate of live export Spiny Rock Lobster in the industry and during the past season more than 800 tons of lobster was processed in its various export forms.