Fishermen’s appeal deadline looms
Appeals for long term fishing rights allocation close soon.
FISHERMEN are urged to lodge their appeals in the long term fishing rights allocation process before the closing date on Friday 21 February.
In a statement, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesperson, Palesa Mokomele, said late appeals will not be accepted, and anybody who feels aggrieved is urged to lodge an appeal before the closing date.
According to Mokomele, minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has been advised that to date, no appeals had been received.
She said fishing rights in KwaZulu-Natal for prawn (trawl), demersal shark, squid, tuna (pole-line), hake (handline), white mussel, traditional line fish and oyster fishing sectors were allocated for periods ranging from two to eight years. All rights in these sectors expired on 31 December last year.
Mokomele said the department received a total of 3 490 rights applications, adding that 110 were for demersal shark and 530 for hake – handline (154 applications were from companies and 376 from individuals).
A total of 81, according to Mokomele, were for KZN prawn trawl, 260 for oysters, 308 for squid, 1 566 for traditional linefish, 329 for tuna pole-line and 306 for white mussels.
The department will make an announcement regarding exemptions to former rights holders in due course.
