Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on publishing of small-scale fishing regulations

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The Small-Scale Fishing Regulations will be published once the President has promulgated the Amended Marine Living Resources Act. These steps are essential to provide a sound legal framework to move the small-scale fisheries sector towards full implementation.

More than 270 communities have registered the Expressions of Interest (EOI's) with the department, representing an estimated 20,000 fishers in South Africa. Registering an EOI is necessary to inform the department that the community contains small-scale fishers and that they would want to be part of the process.

The department is in the process of confirming registration of EOIs with the relevant community members via SMS and other communication platforms and to forward useful information related to the small-scale fisher about the pending verification process. This vital communication medium is a first for the Fisheries Branch of the department which is envisaged to make huge inroads in the improvement of disseminating useful information to fishers.

The following developments in the Small-Scale fisheries sector have taken place:

An in-depth environmental scan was recently completed by the department where local municipalities and traditional leaders were briefed about the pending implementation of the small-scale fisheries policy and the verification process

An apportionment meeting has been held with representatives from the small-scale, recreational and commercial sectors. DAFF used this opportunity to share the envisaged path for apportionment allocation of marine resources to those sectors

A guidebook has been developed to assist stakeholders to de-mystify the participation in the small-scale fisheries sector. This publication will officially be launched towards the end of February 2016

A successful media briefing was held on 27 January 2016 with positive coverage which contextualised small-scale fishing and the processes involved leading to implementation

The department would like to emphasise that any person who wants to be verified as a small-scale fisher must ensure that he or she is in possession of a valid identity document in preparation for the imminent verification process.