I came across this letter which from what I can tell hasn't made its way onto paper yet and proves to be a very insightful perspective on the line fishery, in general. I had to clean up the language a little but I feel the point is still adequately presented.
Dear Editor,
This fishery is
grossly mismanaged in terms of its resource demographics. The department
through blatant ignorance has allowed this industry to grow into an uncontrollable beast.
One of the effort
controlling factors, vessel size, and the departments lack of economic viability studies is in actual fact its greatest downfall.
The latest outcry of line fishers to the improper allocation should be a wake up call to all managing
this industry. Not only to the departmental clowns but also to all the right
holders that have ridden this fat cow for years, raped the resources, reaped
the benefits and stand around crying because they cant get organized and refuse
to adhere to legislation or at the very least try change it. (Read all about the issues surrounding the towing of the line fisher's ski boats in my previous blog titled: Somehow Towing The Line...I mean Boat.)
How does the line fishery make money? How do you do this? Simple.... catch more fish than
anyone else. So the guy with the biggest, fastest boat with the most crew
fundamentally makes the most, yes…. Not anymore.
The fleet has reached
critical mass in terms of vessel size. A large portion of operators now own 25
to 28 foot vessels that seems to be the boundary of where they are prepared to
illegally tow and what can be accommodated in the harbors. So know they are
forced lie later and later in the day to do volume. This hinders the small
entrepreneur and small scale subsistence fisher as the fish prices fall to
stupidly low prices where the small boats up to 6 man, cannot even cover there expenses.
The hawkers love it! WHY…? On any given day when there is ok fish, the first few boats get R25 to R30
for 500 fish, the middle boats just cover their day at R20 and hey presto
the fat cats come in with 1000 and 2000 and flood the market down to R15. Then
all you need is the one or two hawkers that intimidate the show and that price
can drop to R10. What chance does the poor single engine guy have… Absolutely nothing at all …. Giving him a right to fish a 4 man or 5 man boat or permit is like
an oasis mirage in the desert. Sounds good, looks good but not worth it at all.
Why are hawkers up in
arms, SIMPLE… check the revenue from snoek…. When last did you buy a snoek at
under R35? Friends of mine regularly pay up to R70 off bakkies… Granted there
is high spoilage but someones making big bucks …. Its time the snoek industry
owns up and comes clean, its no use hiding behind the skirts of the poor
fisherman of the traditional line fishery.
Why do you think the
crews are up in arms…. That guy that spent his whole pension made it easy for
me, I didn’t have a care in the world except get to a harbor, I buy R200's worth of tackle and I get half of what I catch. On a day that can be nothing…. Yes but
generally in the order of R500 to R1000 per day. Never mind the days when we
get the “geluk” where salaries are as high as R2000 per day when some of the
tougher guys take risks and force the elements.
On a typical snoek run in ST Helena that lasts 6
weeks, moderate operators catch over 1000 fish a day at R20. Crewmen earn up
to R1000 per day plus “fries” up to 10 that they sell at R30. Paints a different
picture doesn’t it? The odd idiot that complains about this arrangement is
exactly what I described him as. For nearly no investment or responsibility a
motivated crewman can easily pocket R80 000 to R100 000 in cash a year, TAX
FREE. This also free him up to do odd jobs now and again as so many do.
The line fishery, the
fat cash cow with its uncontrolled salary structures in alliance with
uncontrolled poaching and interim relief … has been instrumental in the
decimation of tuna pole crews and loss of skills in this sector. Why its simply
easier to go fish 2 to 3 days a week make substantial tax free salary and sit
at home waiting for your crayfish money than actually go to sea for a week and
work for it.
Do youreslf a quick
check on these figures. Take any one of the ten top line fish boats that
regularly catches over 1000 fish a day in St Helena Bay, (I omitted the vessel names that were specifically mentioned here) …. And see if they are VAT registered or if the
pay PAYE or workmen's compensation. Maybe one. The reality of a snoek run just here, regardless of all the rest is
as follows: 30 000 fish at R20 turns over R600 000.
Wages for 10 guys is
easily up to R25000 per man in a month to 6 weeks. All cash. This is boosted by
snoek runs that are shorter but no less intense in Lamberts Bay, Cape Point and Hout Bay. The yellow tail runs
once a year at the point and Struis also
contribute. Last year the snoek fleet arrived en mass in Struis Baai and
totally upset the market there. In the first week we had 4 sea days where
almost all the boats averaged between 1.5 and 4 tons a day. One of the vessels
figures showed 8 tons, actual not the bullshit submitted in the catch returns
which at that stage constituted R160 000
in four days. Crew's take home pay was up to R10 000 for the week for the
better guys.
I would
conservatively say that the top end operators are turning over in excess of R
1.5 million a year and are not declaring it correctly. What they do is they
only declare their half of the catch, not the crews half… which is incorrect as
the law clearly stipulates that the
right has the authority to sell fish and not the crew. Hence the right owner is responsible for all the sales turnover. The right holders maintain that the
crew are contractors, but from a SARS perspective maintains that there is an implied relationship
hence the right holder is responsible for taxation. Its lucky that this is a
free for all and cash business where there is almost no way to track money and
you can declare what you like as is the case with their DAFF catch returns. (How nice would this be if the tuna pole sector was allowed this luxury?)
It would be
interesting to see what would happen if SARS applied itself to this industry,
not just the boats but the hawkers also and see what comes out. For an industry that
has a blatant disregard for so many legislations, it does seem to be crying poor
mouth for all the wrong reasons. I mean how can the Department, DA and ANC
actually classify the line fishery as a subsistence
type business. Some of these guys actually, really not maybe, turn over
double the average tuna pole vessel. Yet its convenient to be labeled traditional line fishery because you pay next to nothing for levies and actually get sympathy when you cry about it. But its time to stand up and be counted for
what you actually are.
Its time somebody
woke up and smelt the coffee. Snoek and yellow tail are healthy vibrant
resources that need to be managed outside of the traditional line fishery. One of correctly regulated will remain a healthy resource that will provide food
security to many low income groups the other is a money spinner in terms of
export revenue. The yellow tail targeted by the line fishery is an absolute waste
of this resource ….with the exception of a few, the snoek fleet is its worst
enemy. In the volumes they land the fish in a short space of time, it becomes a
poor quality product resulting in poor returns and a drive to fish “quantity as
opposed to quality” as the vessels are just not the suitable tools for this
resource in terms of generating sufficient revenue to ensure maximum
profitability or return from this resource.
It is far better left
coastal communities and the tuna pole fleet to catch. Firstly the numbers
locally landed by coastal communities will remain small and retain its value in
the local market. Landed in the tuna pole fleet as fresh exports the value
adding is substantial. Someone just has to get the imported yellow tail taxed to
an extent that its landed cost stay at R30 to ensure the sustainability of the coastal communities catching plans.
The tuna pole fleet
has been trying for 8 years to get the yellow tail back as a legitimate target
resource but to no avail as some incompetent idiots at Sea Fisheries actually
believes all the nonsense about the line fishery being absolutely dependent on it. The
tuna pole fishery gets told that historically(from blue books) they are not dependent on it. Yet the line fishery is. Its just that some of the older
right holders were skimming the system and know the department wants to punish
all because of the mistakes of those before, ABSOLUTE Nonsense. In all due respect,
the line fishery needs to be properly investigated and the rot removed. I agree
it is an employer, but at whose expense. The tuna pole fleet is suffering due
to the growth of this sector. One that continues to grow regardless of current
legislation in other areas. The crews on these very boats were traditionally
the backbone of the tuna pole and freezer boat fleet. The tuna pole fishery is
also a hand line fishery and is severely dependent on this skill. Good line fisherman are simply the best pole fisherman. It is
notable that the tuna pole fleet lost many of its top South African crews to
line fishing boats in earlier years.
For all the good
reasons the line fishery was split to prevent over fishing of reef species in
ecologically sensitive areas. Hence we then had the traditional line fishery and
the tuna pole fleet. The tuna pole fleet
due to its inadequate resources, due to its loss of yellow tail and inability to
have multi species or sector involvement nearly collapsed. One of the
contributing factors was the constant crying of the traditional line fishery as
to the effects reinstatement of yellow tail there would negatively affect
itself.
Surely by this time
it seems relevant to realize that the line fishery needs segregation to
accommodate proper growth. Many line fishers would be better suited in a small
freezer boat. ( Sounds almost like the tuna pole industry)This in terms of
adherence to road ordinance and generally the nature of what they do. It may
not suit the adrenalin junkies that need 400hp on a plank to feel like a man,
but would definitely stimulate the struggling boat building economy and legalize many operations. The spin off is that these vessels are also suitable
for tuna operations. Bear in mind that the department penalizes tuna pole
operators for snoek fishing??? How dumb, they should be rewarded for there
efforts to keep their business afloat when the yellow tail resource is being
raped by another industry that is undeserving due to its general floating of
countless legislation.
My suggestions to
form part of the control of this section of the industry:
- 1.
Segregate the linefishery. All
traditional type vessels to be area bound and resident resources in these areas
to be for locals only as suggested or alluded to in the DA plan
- 2.
Ski boats under 6m be community bound
and only for community projects
- 3.
Rationalize the snoek industry and
form a sector on its own or make it subservient to the tuna pole industry ALLow
tuna access with a Olympic TAC for this section of the sector.
- 4.
Effectively assist there
transformation in accordance to the road ordinance Acts. Place a monitorium on
all vessel upgrades over 7,5m or vessels and trailers with combined GVM of
3500kg.
- 5.
SAMSA to dictate terms of vessel
building guidelines to prevent larger vessel being unsuitably built to meet the
above requirements and endangering crew.
- 6.
Scrap any operation that cannot comply
with road ordinance with financial assistance from the government. In so doing
facilitate transition to Tuna Pole
industry.
- 7.
Properly evaluate the tuna pole
industries resource needs in accordance to skills and economic viability.
- 8.
Facilitate a sector that facilitates
snoek, yellowtail(reasonably capped in terms of TAC to prevent overfishing )
and tuna as these species are reliant on the same skills.
- 9.
Remove current yellowtail restrictions
on tuna pole vessels outside the contiguous Zone. Implement an Olympic system
TAC for yellow tail for the line fishery and tuna pole fisheries within the South
African EEZ.
This may seem like
the ramblings of an old man but they are actually the experience of an
entrepreneur trying to abide by the law getting dead ended because some bureaucratic idiot isn’t dynamic enough to realize that the system they have is dysfunctional
at so many levels that it cannot cope with the economic requirements of a
modern fishing fleet that is dependent on mobility and or international markets
to ensure profitability.
….Sometimes I wonder
if DAFF’s ears are actually connected to there brains? In this comment I humbly apologize to the few that do go out there way to help as far as they can….
As far as the right
holder being on board, it is absolute crap. It is nice to picture this in the
line fishery but where the value adding is concerned, IT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE and
an unrealistic requirement for the snoek fishery that can have up to 20
consecutive fishing days without rest! The department needs to find a more
realistic means of ensuring the right people get allocated rights in terms of
utilization.
On a lighter note, our friend Desmond Stephens has been fired as acting DDG as of the 28th of February. It must be commented that his reign at the helm could be considered controversial and even catastrophic. Let's see who will be appointed to right this floundered ship?
