Fishing licence prices hiked

The cost of commercial fishing licences could rise from R7 000 to over R2m, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday.

"It sounds a lot and it is a lot but everybody must pay the same per ton of fish," Van Schalkwyk told an imbizo of fishermen at Woodstock, Cape Town.

He was reporting on proposed changes in the fishing industry after last year's talks with fishing communities around the country.

Big fishing companies will be hardest hit by the licence fee increases, proposed in draft legislation.

Smaller traditional fisherman would benefit. Their application for fishing rights in some instances dropped from R7 000 to R400.

Van Schalkwyk said that previously a flat rate was charged for fishing rights that did not take into account the size of the catch or the size of the enterprise.

Good for small businesses
"This means that big fishing companies were paying less per ton of fish than small fishermen," he said, noting that in essence the small were subsiding the big.

Under the flat rate system, big fisherman were paying 13 cents per ton of deep water hake compared to R18 paid by small operators.

The minister also announced that 10% of the lucrative hake industry would be set aside for small fishing businesses.

"This is valued at R280m a year," Van Schalkwyk said.

Another 10% would be set aside for transformation purposes.

Vuyeni Mbathi, a small scale fisherman, said this was good news all round especially the drop in application fees which made it possible for more fisherman to get involved.

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