Community Fishing Rights

Group Rights for Commercial Fishermen

Coloured Fishing Community
Image From: Business Report

This is the latest 'idea' from South Africa's legislators: In a half hearted politically motivated attempt to address the problem created by the commercial fisheries act in 1998, the ministry has come up with a proposed bill to grant small scale fishing communities group rights.

The idea is; these communities, many of which are (were prior to 1994) dependent on small scale commercial fishing for a livelihood, will be able to apply for commercial fishing licences as a community rather than as individuals. Not a terribly bad idea in fact, however it only addresses a part of the ex-commercial fishing community  -the Western Cape based 'coloured' fishermen.