Fishers have grouped themselves into cooperatives in the hopes of being recognised, but they still face exclusion and marginalisation in South Africa’s fishing and food industry.
Thoko Ntimbane (58), a small-scale fisher in Kosi Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, holds up a 4kg spotted grunter that is about 40cm long. Beaming, she talks in detail about the species and others that she catches.
Ntimbane goes to great lengths to catch these fish. A fishing day starts at 4am. She walks for two hours to get to the coast and crosses through bushes to get to her fishing spot.
Depending on her catch of the day from straight-line fishing, she could be carrying anything from 15-35kg back home.
But this is not her biggest challenge on fishing days, as she can be arrested if she’s found with the wrong species, fish that are too small, or if she has crossed over into the Marine Protected Area (MPA).
“We have lost the sea. We have no water with life that we can touch now. Unemployment is already high in Kosi Bay, and we have a lot of crime as a result. Fishing is one of the last ways we have to make money, it is the only way right now,” Ntimbane said.
Kosi Bay is part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site. It is about a five-hour drive from Durban. The Mozambique border forms the northern boundary of the MPA and the Indian Ocean the eastern boundary.
Despite being granted fishing rights, small-scale fishery (SSF) cooperatives face obstacles in exercising them because of restricted access to water bodies and limitations imposed by MPAs.
Estuary management plans, limitations due to working in MPAs, and now concerns around oil and gas developments in the sea are ongoing challenges for small-scale fishers.
According to MPA regulations, only subsistence fishing is allowed and it’s limited to personal consumption. Fishers are limited to straight-line fishing and butterfly net fishing.
Ntimbane’s daughter, Nompilo Ntimbane (28), also a fisher, said: “The challenge is when we get to the water, we are not allowed even when we have a permit. The people from Nature (nature conservation officers) have their way of thinking, [but] straight-line fishing and butterfly [net] fishing make it hard to get fish.
“We used to use fish kraals in high seasons for grunters and stumpnose but we can’t use that due to the regulations. If we were allowed to use the gillnets we could come back with the fish the customers want,” said Nompilo, who is part of the cooperative Inhloso YamaKhosikazi.
The concern from the Department of Fisheries and conservation experts over gillnets is that they catch everything, including species that are at high risk, and undersized fish.