The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has given in to the demands of small fishers and increased the crayfish quota for the 2021-22 season. But for the next two years, the quota will be cut again.
Fishers from as far as Port Nolloth protested in front of Parliament in October after the department announced a 28% reduction in the quota for the next season. Minister Barbara Creecy agreed then to review the quota.
On Monday, the department announced that it had accepted a report by the Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF) appointed to advise on the West Coast Rock Lobster fishery. The report recommended that the total allowable catch be increased from the present 600 tons to 700 tons for the 2021-22 season, “given the dire socio-economic conditions of fishers reliant on [crayfish] for their livelihood”.
But, the forum recommended that the quota then be decreased to 550 tons in the next season and to 400 in the season after that to curb the decline in the crayfish stock.
The West Coast Rock Lobster, caught on the coasts of the Western Cape and Northern Cape, was red-listed in 2016, which means that the species has very depleted stock levels and future stocks may be wiped out.
As a result, quotas have been decreasing, leaving fishers in Port Nolloth battling for years.
Port Nolloth set up a co-operative in 2018 after a change to the Marine Living Resources Act affecting small scale fishers. About 103 people, all of them from the Port Nolloth and Hondeklip Bay co-operatives, were declared small-scale fishers in the Northern Cape in terms of the Act, with rights to fish for 15 years. But since then, the total allowable catch of crayfish has decreased every year.
Juliana Rooi, one of the only fisherwomen in Port Nolloth, has been fishing for over 20 years.
“I was 12 when I began catching crayfish with a net on the rocks, with my uncle and my cousin,” she told GroundUp on the harbour at Port Nolloth. She had just been helping some fishers offload equipment and drag their boats across the beach into the water.
When the weather permits it, the fishers go out to sea at about 04:00 in the morning and return after 14:00. They catch crayfish when it’s in season, between October and February, and when the season closes, they catch fish like snoek.
Rooi said the fishers had been struggling with the annual cuts to the crayfish quota. “What you give you can’t take back. It doesn’t work like that.”
Petrus Rooi, who taught Juliana how to fish, said that often during his life he had no choice but to go work on the nearby diamond mines when he couldn’t catch crayfish anymore.
“Over the years, things have become very difficult … After you get your quota out of the water, there isn’t an income anymore. You have nothing more to do,” said Petrus.
Petrus said that he would still go work on the mine though it was dangerous. “Just to make a living. To support your family. You have no other choice,” he said.
Walter Steenkamp, who has been a fisher for 35 years, said that for a few years, fishers in Port Nolloth had struggled because the crayfish were small. For one season, fishers had agreed to catch less than their quota.
“It was a good effort from our side. It allowed the crayfish to get stronger and bigger,” said Steenkamp.
This season, he said, there have been fewer crayfish than usual.
When Rooi’s 15 years of fishing rights are over, she will apply again, she says.
“We go on. It’s our lives. We live from the sea water; it’s our bread and butter.”
The Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF), which consists of fishing community representatives, was appointed by Minister Barbara Creecy to advise her on fishing of the West Coast Rock Lobster. The forum was asked to consider the methodology used to determine the total allowable catch, the cuts in quotas for commercial fishing, small fishers, and recreational fishers; and data on poaching. The forum was also asked to advise how fishing communities could help the department manage the stock.
