by Horst Kleinschmidt

The Cree people of North America have a saying:
“Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been
poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money
cannot be eaten.”
Some headlines and media stories really do not rise above the Cree wisdom. Some stories are downright dumb: “No fishing permits, so families face starvation”, or “Pap handouts help but solution lies in licences”. The limits to sustainable exploitation simply elude these writers. Posing as the defenders of poor people’s rights or interests does not cut ice either. They generally, defended yesterdays oppressors and display bigoted attitudes to this day.
Good environmental journalists who understand the fishing industry, are far and few. I can count them on one hand. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean journalists who support or agree with our point of view.
The President said it in his annual Sate of the Nation address: ‘we have always known that our country’s blemishes…. could not be removed in one decade.’ The fishing sector is no exception. We can point to the gains, the new legislation and the gradual removal of racial exclusion, but the task ahead remains daunting. Sadly some commentators and media reports, I suspect, are anchored in the blinkered privilege of the past.

Allow me to elaborate:
West Coast Rock Lobster (WCRL) is managed in part, through the setting of an annual Total Allowable Catch. It should hardly need saying but some reports rely on divers who claim that they ‘have seen lots of lobster in the sea’ and our restrictions on catches are thus unfair. We either use scientific evidence or we abandon any form of management. Me thinks the argument arises because we allocated what was left of the TAC to poor and disadvantaged divers and restricted the access rights of recreational, generally privileged divers.
The argument that black people also availed themselves of recreational permits is an extension of the contortionist argument. The point is that we extended limited commercial rights to previously disadvantaged people in order for them to have an income from the resource they live next to. They actually sold their catches to tourists. Some may have been tourists who also enjoy diving for lobster. Me thinks: white privilege runs deeply here. And I may add: it is not for lack of trying to explain; in fact we have spent many hours treading the same ground, over and over.
We then attracted criticism because there are no real fish markets in fishing harbours. True! They disappeared when subsistence fishing was criminalised under apartheid. By allocating the lobster rights as described above we are re-creating the possibilities for harbour markets. The evidence of improved economic conditions in poor coastal towns is beginning to show. Instead we are told that we destroy tourism. Tell me another!
We were then told that the local market was starved of fish and lobster because we should force quota holders to sell part of their catch on the local market. And they should do so at reduced price. Apparently this was done in the distant past. Talk of market intervention! Had we done this now there would have been howls of derision. The labels: command economy, socialism and communism would be used to describe Government.
As it turned out quota holders were desperate to sell their lobster on the local market at R80 and R90 a kilogram not least because the strong Rand had put a dent in the export market. In fact it turned out to be the Restaurants who sold lobster at up to R800 a plate in the hope to make a fast buck off foreign tourists.
And then about the potatoes. I do not doubt the real hardship and poverty caused by restrictions in fishing access that my Department implements. But the evidence of collapsed and endangered fish stocks is real. Rivers such as the Berg and Oliphants serve as crucial ‘nurseries’ where fish spawn. We have proposed and are doing so again, that net fishers use their nets on the open coast and leave the estuaries to recover. But old habits die hard and trek netting on the coast was taken up by a few only. Far more irritating is the hidden hand of white privilege behind many a trek netter. Farmers with river frontage are the real force. Their labourers are pushed into the frontline of the media campaigns. My Department will put renewed resources into finding a solution to this economically depressed area. But let that not be at the cost of the Cree peoples saying.

On a different note:
The fishing industry will be pleased to know that preparations for the 2005 rights allocation are well under way. Sector specific policy is being developed and stakeholders are encouraged to make their policy proposals known through their industry associations.
By the time this column appears the Department should have been appointed, through public tender, service providers to assist with rights advice and with verification. In both instances the capacity of these providers will be significantly beefed up to meet the demands faced in such a process.