In the beginning of May we shared various instances of locals interested in the depleting marine life along our coasts.

They had started sharing screenshots of maps picking up illegal fishing vessels, which would take anchor through the early mornings of the night, only to disappear as soon as the sun rose.

Many of the boats had Asian names and were immediately linked to the horrific illegal trade that China is so well known for. And fair enough.

Although we then got wind that there are locals who are venturing into the illegal avenues as well, I highly doubt their technology is so up to date that they are the boats that no one can detect.

Anyways, after all this hit the news, the SA Navy decided it was high time to actually put their boats in use. Celebrations all around, right? I suppose.

At first they attempted to chase down the boats, but only got one which unfortunately had no fish onboard at the time. From South Africa Today:

Although no fish were discovered on the vessel they had contravened the Marine Living Resources Act by entering the South African exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without a valid permit; the master or crew members had failed to comply with the lawful instructions as given by a fisheries control officer; and further did not facilitating the safe boarding, entry, and inspection of the vessel.

Since then, slightly more effort has been undertaken to track down the illegals and  impound them. When three Chinese vessels were seen in East London for allegedly fishing illegally, people were pleased something was finally being done.

The were impounded on Sunday night as part of a joint operation by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DAFF), the SA Maritime Safety Authority and the SA Navy.

According to DAFF:

On 20 May 2016, just off Port Elizabeth, the joint patrol spotted two foreign fishing vessels from the automated identification system on board the Navy vessel. We established that the vessels had gear on board and we verified that they had not applied to enter into our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and that created suspicion. The seas were rough, which made it impossible for our inspectors to board the vessels. Our fishery control officers instructed the vessels through radio communication to sail to East London, but they did not cooperate.

Two vessels played cat and mouse on the high seas with the SA Navy, before they were eventually intercepted and instructed to sail to East London.

DAFF’s patrol vessel and the SA Navy vessel had to increase speed in order to intercept the foreign fishing vessels which were speeding off, but managed to intercept them. The vessels stopped and they switched off their engines.

That continued and at about 02h00, on Sunday morning 22 May 2016, the foreign fishing vessels started their engines and within no time and with no communication with the Inspectors, they started steaming towards the east.

The two foreign vessels were followed throughout the early hours of the morning and they were intercepted again, and fortunately this time the weather had improved and the fisheries inspectors and the SA Navy officials boarded the foreign vessels.

The inspections were conducted, whereby fish and gear was found on both foreign vessels, both with no permits. The vessels were again instructed to sail to the nearest port, which was East London.

The foreign fishing vessels were found to have the following tons of fish on board:

• — Fu Yuan Yu 7880 (36 crew) – about 340 tons of squid.
• — Fu Yang Yu 7881 (34 crew) – about 60 tons of squid.
• — Run Da 617 (26 crew) – about 200 tons of squid and other species of fish.

All fish is set to be taken out of the vessels for further identification, counting, and weighing. Finally, the government is waking up. Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana even had something to add:

The capture of the vessels indicates the country’s seriousness to protect its territorial and exclusive economic zone. We cannot tolerate the plundering of our marine resources, which are a source of food security and play a huge role in realising our goals in Operation Phakisa. We are also looking into the sudden influx of these vessels in our waters.

That’s great for now, but it needs to be an ongoing commitment. Also, we really need to sort out local fishing quotas, too.

[source: southafricatoday]