Question NW177 to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

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18 February 2016 - NW177

Profile picture: Van Dyk, Ms V

Van Dyk, Ms V to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Whether his department has issued a transfer permit so that the fishermen in Port Nolloth can catch their quotas of crayfish/lobster at another place due to problems with the renewal of permits to store their catch in Port Nolloth; if not, why not; if so, (a) when was such a permit issued and (b) what are the relevant details

Reply:

The Department received a request to transfer the allocations of the Exemption Holders of the Zone A West Coast Rock Lobster (Nearshore) from Zone A (Areas 1 and 2 - Port Nolloth and Hondeklip Bay) to Zone B (Areas 3 and 4). The request has been declined because the Department and the West Coast Rock Lobster sector have irrevocably committed themselves to a resource recovery plan to rebuild the West Coast Resource Lobster resource to 35% above its 2006 level by 2021.

The objective is to rebuild the 2006 biomass of male West Coast Rock Lobster above the 75 mm CL minimum size limit, by 35% by 2021 (i.e. B75mm(2021/2006) = 1.35. The Department endeavours to promote recovery of the resource as a whole, and of the resource in each of the five super-areas (A1-2, A3-4, A5-6, A7 and A8+), while containing the risk of unintended resource reduction in each of these super-areas. The proportional allocation of the global Total Allowable Catch amongst the five super-areas will differ from year to year to take account of the different recruitments occurring and hence different trends in abundance in each of these super-areas.

However, the request to use the John Ovenstone factory as a holding facility and to nominate specific (Nearshore) Exemption Holders to harvest on behalf of the Zone A (Nearshore) Exemption Holders, respectively, have been approved on 18 January 2016.

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