As of now the fishing industry has yet to receive a response from the Fisheries Department and as it currently stands, all tuna pole vessels will have to be in port no later than midnight of the 31st of December. The Fresh Tuna Exporters Association sent the Department of Fisheries a legal letter from our lawyers for a request within grounds stipulated in the Marine Living Resource Act motivating for for the extension of all current permits until the end of January 2014. This extension will allow sufficient time for the department to pulls its finger out of what ever orifice it currently has it stuck up and roll out the rights allocation in line with the FRAP 2013. Despite the ever wise Minister guaranteeing that all rights will be allocated no later than the 31st of December, they have not been able to even respond to formal letters sent by industry such as the letter from the FTEA addressed to the minister below:
We will have to see what their official response will be on Monday upon their opening but I wouldn't dare hold my breath. The below article by John Yeld was extracted from the Cape Times and highlights the extent of this issue:
No comments:
Post a Comment