Fishermen call on De Lille to help with quotas

Patricia de Lille has arranged a meeting with the marine and coastal management department

Patricia de Lille, the leader of the Independent Democrats, has been given a mandate by traditional fishing communities which operate from Kalk and Hout Bay harbours in the Cape peninsula to intervene on their behalf. Subsistence fishermen who operate from the south and western coast of the Cape are facing destitution after their applications for fishing quotas were refused.

De Lille has arranged to have representatives of these communities join her in a meeting with officials from the department of marine and coastal management in Cape Town on August 19. Less than half the applicants who put to sea from the Kalk Bay and Hout Bay harbours to fish by line for snoek were successful.

The government says the decree which prevents them from from taking to the sea was necessary because fish stocks were depleted. The fishermen face prosecution if they continue fishing without the necessary documents.

De Lille said that low income communities for whom the sea was the only means of putting food on the table, must not be denied the right to earn a living. Concerned members of the local community have pledged R43 000 to help those in need and challenged the government to grant aid in excess of this amount.

There is some hope however, as the department of environmental affairs is to consider appeals against its line fish allocations, by the August 19. This will enable more than 70 additional boats and a crew of over 1 000 to go to the sea to earn a living.