Garden Route fishing policy questioned

As previously covered in Legalbrief Environmental, government has proposed allowing limited recreational and subsistence fishing in the Tsitsikamma MPA. WWF-SA says that the government has committed itself to increasing marine protected areas to 20% of SA’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by 2012. Deon Nel, head of WWF-SA’s Sanlam Marine Programme, noted that currently less than 1% of our EEZ enjoys such protection. ‘Opening up part of our oldest and most valuable MPA is therefore in stark contrast to this commitment,’ he said. Full Cape Argus report

Banning fishing completely in the three proclaimed marine reserves on the Garden route coastline will provide the greatest overall economic benefit from these areas, according to a preliminary study by resource economist, Jane Turpie, commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The report, entitled The Economic Value of Marine Protected Areas along the Garden Route Coast and Implications of Changes in Size and Management, formed part of a larger study on conservation planning for the marine diversity of the southern Cape coast. The study concluded that MPAs along the Garden Route coast provided substantial value over and above the value that these coastal areas would otherwise generate, reports the Cape Argus. It put the economic value of the Tskikamma MPA, as an exporter of fish larvae and juveniles, at R33m a year. In a second Cape Argus report, marine scientists from Rhodes University and the SA Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity have slammed the government’s proposal, calling it ‘irresponsible and illegal’. They say that even the lightest fishing would damage linefish stocks. It would also threaten linefishing outside the MPA, as stocks are replenished by juveniles from the ‘no-take’ reserve. First Cape Argus report Second report in The Star Download the WWF report