Permits applications for White Shark Cage Diving and Boat Based Whale Watching are to be issued during the last quarter of 2008. Download the respective policies here.
You can download the South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s invitation to apply for fish farming rights (excluding ranching) here
EU commission urges fishing cuts
Read more at:Read more
Overfishing 'annihilating Nile Perch'
Kampala - Overfishing on Lake Victoria has seen Nile Perch stocks drop 81 percent to 370 000 tons in 2008 from 2-million tons three years ago, "annihilating" the species, Uganda said on Thursday.
Fishing is one of Uganda's leading export earners. The east African nation boasts four major lakes - Victoria, Lake Albert, Lake George and Lake Kyoga.
"We are catching immature, juvenile fish so they have no chance to reproduce," said Fred Mukisa, state minister for fisheries.
"It is annihilation of the species, the situation is very bad and it must be reversed," he told journalists.
Uganda's fisheries ministry said the price of Nile Perch was rising, but earnings still dropped to $115-million in 2008 from a record of $143-million in 2005.
Mukisa said Uganda would adopt a zero-tolerance policy with illegal fishing on the lake - shared with Kenya and Tanzania - a practise Kampala hoped to eradicate by the end of 2009.
"We must aggressively go fish farming ... that is the only way we can feed our people," he said.
ANC official bust with abalone
WCape Town - A local ANC leader was caught with 2 474 fresh abalone outside Hermanus on Monday morning, after a short chase in a vehicle covered with stickers of the ruling party and its leader, Jacob Zuma. Read more at:Read more
Plenty more fish in the sea? Think again...
Washington - The world's waters were once seen as a boundless source of fish for humans to eat, but over-fishing and aquaculture have depleted some species and left others famished and weak, two reports said on Monday.
Climate change is expected to add more stress for fish populations, forcing warm-water species further toward the poles, changing marine and freshwater food webs and habitats, the reports said.
Read more at:Read more
Farmed fish and shrimps need sustainability boost
Aquaculture, revealed in a key UN analysis today to be the basis of all future growth in global seafood production, desparately needs to be put on a more sustainable basis, leading global environment organization WWF said today.
State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008 (SOFIA 2008), released this morning by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that food supplies from aquaculture now equal those from ocean and freshwater capture fisheries. The report also documents a continuing drop-off in yields from the world's marine
Read more at:Read more
SA 'losing abalone war'
04 February 2009
New research indicates that a record 3 000 tons of abalone was poached from South African waters and sold in Asia last year. And fingers are being pointed at the leaky convention on international trade in endangered species (Cites) permit system, which authorities struggle to enforce.
The research was conducted by Feike, an independent natural resources advisory firm based in Cape Town, and non-governmental pressure group Traffic.
Read more at:Read more
Stiff jail terms for toxic dumpers
October 23, 2008
An Ivory Coast court has handed down jail terms of 20 years and five years to two people for dumping toxic waste from a cargo ship in Abidjan in 2006 which killed 17 people and poisoned thousands.
Seven other people charged in the case were acquitted.
Read more at:Read more
Proposed I&J fish farm off Mossel Bay raises concerns
30 October 2008
RESIDENTS of Mossel Bay and nearby Little Brak River have handed in a number of objections to CCA Environmental, the company which produced an environmental impact assessment which apparently favours Irvin & Johnson‘s proposal to create a large fish farm off the Mossel Bay coast.
The I&J aquaculture project is planned for a 200 hectare area about 2,5km off the Little Brak River mouth. At premium production, about 3000 tons of fish will be contained in cages below the sea surface.
Read more at:Read more
Stiff jail terms for toxic dumpers
October 23, 2008
An Ivory Coast court has handed down jail terms of 20 years and five years to two people for dumping toxic waste from a cargo ship in Abidjan in 2006 which killed 17 people and poisoned thousands.
Seven other people charged in the case were acquitted.
Read more at:Read more
Fisheries waste 'costs billions'
The world's fishing fleets are losing billions of dollars each year through depleted stocks and poor management, according to a UN report.
The World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calculate the losses at $50bn per year.
Read more at:Read more
Bluefin tuna nears extinction
Rome - An influential global network of governments, scientists and conservationists has called for a ban on fishing for the Mediterranean bluefin tuna, a highly prized species which is threatened with extinction.
Members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) passed a resolution which urges a total ban on fishing the species and for the creation of a sanctuary for bluefin tuna around Spain's Balearic islands.
Read more at:Read more
Greenpeace Eye Collapsing $Billion Pollock Industry
13 October 2008
US ‹ The world¹s largest food fishery is on the verge of collapse. Pollock, used to make McDonald¹s fish sandwiches, frozen fish sticks, fish and chips, and imitation crabmeat, have had a population decrease of 50 percent since last year.
The dwindling fish populations are largely due to the enormous amounts of fish being removed from Alaska¹s Bering Sea, reports Greenpeace. Factory trawlers take over a million tonnes of pollock out of the ocean each year.
The fish can¹t reproduce and recover as quickly as they are being fished.
Just as the financial institutions on Wall Street collapsed due to poor oversight and mismanagement‹the pollock fishery is on the fast-track to collapse as well. In order to avoid a collapse, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council must take swift and decisive action when they meet in December to reduce catch levels and put pollock back on the path to healthier population levels.
Read more at:Read more
'A blank cheque for abalone poachers'
3 October 2008
Perlemoen poaching syndicates have been given carte blanche to export their goods legitimately by using unendorsed permits from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The move to get perlemoen listed under Cites was aimed at helping stop the illegal trade internationally, but it appears to have made it easier for crime syndicates.
Read more at:Read more
EU calls for tighter fish quotas
Brussels - Europe's fisheries chief called for hefty quota cuts on Wednesday to protect exotic deepwater species, some of which can live up to 150 years, with trawling to be banned for deep-sea sharks and orange roughy from 2010.
With names like forkbeard, black scabbardfish, greater silver smelt and roundnose grenadier, Europe's deep-sea fish grow and reproduce far more slowly than fish in shallower waters and are far more vulnerable to overfishing.
Read more at:Read more
EU to overhaul fisheries policy
The European Commission has announced a full review of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, saying the current regime fails to protect fish stocks.
The commission says that fishermen who obey the fishing rules are being penalised by the irresponsible behaviour of others who flout them.
Read more at:Read more
Anti-poaching boat 'outsourced'
29 August 2008
The government has confirmed that it has earned close to R12-million from chartering the offshore environmental protection vessel Sarah Baartman to PetroSA's Mossel Bay gas platform operations since August 2005.
The vessel was specifically designed to patrol South Africa's offshore economic exclusive zone (EEZ), including the Prince Edward Island group where the lucrative Patagonian toothfish resource, valued at billions of rands, has been devastated by poachers. Read more
Poached perlemoen costs SA R1,2bn
29 August 2008, 08:14
About 2 000 tons of wild SA perlemoen, with a market value of R1,2-billion, were landed in Hong Kong last year - the bulk of which was poached and smuggled out of the country.
Experts says this huge loss of revenue is a result of the department of environmental affairs having no comprehensive strategy to curb perlemoen poaching since the anti-poaching Marines were disbanded. Read more
Ownership key to saving fisheries
Giving fishermen long-term rights to catch fish is key to keeping stocks healthy, scientists conclude. A global survey found that fisheries managed using individual transferable quotas (ITQs) were half as likely to collapse as others.
Long-term quotas give fishermen a stake in conserving fish stocks. The study was published in the journal Science just a day after the European Commission announced a major review of EU fisheries policy.
Read more at:Read more
More fish off the 'green' menu
Haddock, anchovies and five types of tuna should all be off the menu for UK eco-conscious diners, a charity says.
Along with monkfish, plaice and certain varieties of Dover sole, the species are included on the Marine Conservation Society's updated Fish to Avoid list.
The charity publishes lists of fish to eat and avoid based on monitoring of stocks and fishing practices.
Read more at:Read more
Mixed fortunes for world's whales
The latest global assessment of cetaceans shows that the marine mammals throughout the world's oceans have experienced mixed fortunes.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reveals that some large species, like humpbacks, have seen numbers increase.
However, it warns that smaller species, including river dolphins, have declined as a result of human actions.Read more
Trawler holed in encounter with whale
After a second close encounter with a whale in just four months, a fishing vessel and its crew were towed into Hout Bay harbour on Wednesday after it began taking on water.
Still a bit shaken from the ordeal, considered rare, the ship's captain Christiaan Smith said it had not been the first time his ship had encountered a whale, the last being in April in Saldanha Bay when a whale lifted the ship out the water. Read more
Indian Ocean tuna catch drops
Victoria, the Seychelles - Tuna catches across the Indian Ocean have fallen sharply in the last two years but experts are split about what is threatening the region's $6-billion industry.
Conservationists blame years of unchecked exploitation while processors say climatic conditions may be driving the fish deeper away from their nets.
Read more
Feds Protect Huge Areas of the Bering Sea from Trawling
The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Friday that nearly 180,000 square miles of the Bering Sea will be closed to destructive bottom trawling to protect important seafloor habitats and marine life effective August 25, 2008. These in-the-water protections reflect an approach first developed by Oceana, and supported by local communities and other conservation organizations, that freezes the current area, or "footprint," where trawling already occurs in the Bering Sea and prevents trawlers from expanding into previously untrawled areas. Read more
Sushi threatens bluefin tuna
Mediterranean Sea -The rage for sushi and sashimi, Japan's raw fish dishes that overtook the West and have now spread to increasingly prosperous China, risks wiping out one of the Mediterranean's most emblematic residents: the bluefin tuna.
Experts say too many of these majestic fish prized since Greek and Roman times -- each one of which can weigh up to 900 kilos - are ending up on the platters of restaurants around the globe. Read more
Moz authorities seize shark-fishing ship
Mozambican authorities have struck a blow against illegal fishing with the seizure and confiscation of an unlicensed Namibian vessel fishing for sharks off the central Mozambican coast.
Fisheries Minister Cadmiel Muthemba said a legitimate Mozambican fishing company spotted the Namibian ship, the Antillas Reefer, and alerted the authorities. The ministry investigated and ordered the ship to head south and put in at Maputo port.
When fishing inspectors weighed the ship's cargo, they found it was carrying
43 tons of shark, four tons of shark fin, 1,8 tons of shark tail, 11,3 tons of shark liver, and 20 tons of shark oil.
Shark fins are a delicacy in Asia, while shark liver and oil are used for medicinal purposes.Read more
Cape Town men in 'huge poaching racket'
Former Hout Bay Fishing Industries company owner Arnold Bengis, his son David, and US business partner Jeffrey Noll are described in current US Appeal Court papers as "key players in a sprawling, trans-Atlantic criminal scheme to illegally harvest massive quantities of South African rock lobster and Patagonian toothfish - marketed in the US as Chilean sea bass - and then to sell that illegally harvested fish in the US for a significant profit".Read more
EU halts tuna fishing
Marsaxlokk, Malta - Mediterranean tuna ranches are feeling the pinch after the European Union moved to prevent the depletion of fish stocks.
"For 2008, we will probably process only 500 tons," said Saviour Caruana, a co-owner of Fish and Fish, a bluefin tuna ranch with a capacity of 1 200 tons.Read more
Pirate fishing boats target Africa
There is a kind of theft that happens every day in a majority of the world's poor countries - and in many of the richer ones too.
It usually happens out of sight, and most perpetrators get away with it. Read more
White Shark Cage Diving