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South Africa: Poachers Smiling After Kreef Bungle
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Cape Argus (Cape Town)
4 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
John Yeld
Cape Town
A bureaucratic bungle has brought a smile to the faces of local kreef lovers but a frown to marine conservationists trying to curb the poaching that is still rampant along the Cape coast.
This year's 2007/8 recreational rock lobster (kreef) season opened as normal on November 15 after a last-minute flurry of activity by Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism officials to get the required regulations gazetted.
The department announced that the season would run until April 15, and that as with the previous kreef season fishing for kreef from January 1 would be restricted to weekends and public holidays.
But the Cape Argus has learnt these new regulations were not gazetted.
What in fact appeared in the Government Gazette were the 2005 recreational regulations that allowed kreef catches to be made every day of the week until the end of January.
This means that, legally, holders of 2007/8 permits may catch kreef every day until January 31.
The other regulations still apply, so that catches may only be made between 8am and 4pm, and the daily limit of four and size restrictions remain unchanged.
The Cape Argus was alerted by a Cape Hangklip resident who said she was concerned about continuing high levels of poaching in the area of both kreef and perlemoen.
The woman, who asked not to be named for safety reasons local residents have been attacked by poachers in the past said the poachers used recreational permits as a cover behind which to hide their illegal fishing.
She said she and fellow conservationists had always heaved a huge sigh of relief when the week-day restrictions came into force because this helped to reduce the poaching activity.
But when fishing for kreef continued this week, she had decided to check with the office of environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk and the department's Marine and Coastal Management branch.
She was then told that a senior official had "forgotten" to gazette the correct regulations, she said.
"It's just so slack it's a terrible mess."
She also said that groups of very powerful inflatable craft up to 12m long and carrying as many as 20 divers were openly poaching kreef and perlemoen during daylight hours along the Hangklip-Betty's Bay coastline.
"I've had these boats right next to me - they just don't give a damn," she said.
"When they take off they're gone in about five seconds.
"The department really needs to get a helicopter to deal with them."
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The Department of Environmental Affairs had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to press.
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