The media welcomed the returning research vessel SA Agulhas this week. She arrived back in Cape Town on Wednesday after safely delivering British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his team to an ice shelf in the Antarctica, where he is attempting the first crossing of the Antarctic in winter.

DA fisheries spokesman, Pieter van Dalen is on the warpath this week. He is demanding that Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson provide a plan of action “to prevent the potential loss of jobs in the fishing industry.”

Van Dalen is claiming that, due to the fact that the minister failed to ensure a critical hake stock survey, the fisheries sector stands to lose up to R3 billion. With the research ship SAS Africana still grounded for repairs and a private company carrying out the survey, there is concern that the survey will not be completed resulting in the loss of the lucrative foreign market.

The department, however, does not seem concerned with Lionel Adendorf being quoted saying, we are “satisfied with the progress of the West Coast demersal survey … currently being undertaken with the assistance of the research vessel Dr Fridtjof Nansen and the Benguela Current Commission.”

Given the looming end of the Navy’s curatorship of the DAFF vessels it is likely that the media will hear more from Van Dalen as he continues to stir the pot of controversy surrounding this matter.

The big maritime news of the week is Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), being taken to court by Judith Sole, leader of the Green Party of South Africa. The minister is being taken to court in a bid by Sole to have the fishing of West Coast lobster halted immediately in order to allow a period of recuperation.

Although chief executive of Feike and marine lawyer Shaheen Moolla has offered to assist, the two have not been able to come to an agreement, and Sole will, therefore, be fighting the case alone.

Moolla has stated that although he believes that Sole’s intentions are honourable, she will have little success as she is seeking to force the minister to stop commercial lobster trap fishing and this action would have an effect on more than just the minister herself, but on many other parties.

The rule of court is that if a party is seeking to ‘impugn the interests of any party you are obliged to serve the papers on all the interested parties.’ There are 1240 quota right holders and all 1240 would, therefore, each have to be served.

On Sunday the British tall ship, Lord Nelson, docked at the V&A Waterfront. This newsworthy vessel is embarking on a two-year around the world challenge and for the first time both able bodied and disabled individuals from around the world will be allowed aboard. Quadriplegic, Russell Vollmer, an experienced sea traveller and member of the QuadPara Association of SA, is one of nine South Africans aboard.

Over the two year period, the ship will cover over 80,000km, visit seven different continents, as well as over 30 countries.

On the environmental front, it was reported in the Cape Times this week that Leon Bekker, who caught a great white shark off Mossel Bay in March 2011, has become the first man to be convicted of killing one of these protected maritime creatures.

The killing of great white sharks was outlawed in 1991, but it has taken 22 years to finally get a conviction. Bekker was sentenced to one year in prison or a R120,000 fine.

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesman, Lionel Adendorf welcomed the sentence saying that he believes that it will serve as a deterrent to similar maritime crimes.

In a follow up to last week’s news regarding fishing in the Betty’s Bay Marine Protected Area; four fishermen were arrested this week for failing to heed warnings issued by fisheries control officers and appeared in the Caledon Magistrates Court on Monday.

In an operation conducted by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), two other fishermen made the news when they were issued with both written and verbal warnings regarding fishing in the area.

Despite sending letters to local fishermen, it would seem that DAFF is still struggling to get the message across – or the message is simply being ignored.

The SA Agulhas is back in the news after docking alongside the ice in the Antarctic. Ranulph Fiennes, known as the greatest living explorer, has had nothing but praise for the cadets aboard the vessel. The journey’s co-leader, Anton Bowring also offered praise, saying, “They are extremely helpful, hard-working and friendly. We think of the cadets and all of the crew as members of our exhibition. They have all contributed greatly to the success of our project so far.”

The perlemoen poaching epidemic has moved closer to home this week, with reports of poachers operating off the coast of Sea Point.

Shaheen Moolla, Chief Executive of Feike has been quoted as saying, “Inevitably, because abalone is increasingly hard to find in the Overstrand, people are coming round the mountain to poach.” Police spokesman, Frederick van Wyk said that vehicle, vessel and foot patrols had been increased in the area and that investigations into poaching in the area were ongoing and at a sensitive stage.

The authorities in the area definitely have their work cut out for them.

The French frigate FS Nivose docked at the V&A Waterfront this week for a four-day replenishment stop and invited media onboard. The vessel is a 3,000 ton warship operating as a surveillance frigate specialsing in counter-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa.

Commanding Officer of the vessel, Captain Samuel Majou said that international anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia were achieving their goal of decreasing pirate attacks on commercial vessels.

Although it is sad that our oceans have to be policed to this degree, it must offer great peace of mind to those passing through this very busy corridor.

The press was informed of a small omission in a letter to local fishermen that resulted in the Betty’s Bay Marine Reserve being plundered for its lobster stocks. The area was demarcated by government as a protected area to allow depleted fish stock to recover. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) provided local fishermen from Kleinmond, Hermanus and Gansbaai with a letter granting permission to fish their quotas anywhere in a section of the southern Cape coast known as ‘Zone F.’ Unfortunately, the Betty’s Bay Marine Reserve falls within this zone and the letter failed to point out that the reserve is in fact a restricted area.

The department has been informed of the error and a second letter has been sent to local fishermen informing them of the restrictions in this area, but so far the letter has gone unheeded.

Mike Tannet, who runs the local community-based anti-poaching organisation SeaWatch, stated that the same thing happened at the start of 2012.

Fisheries spokesman, Lionel Adendorf, reiterated that the department was aware of the error, a second letter had been sent and local fishermen would be made to comply.

Once again, DAFF: a department in desperate need of some real leadership.

Clarence October, originally from Bonteheuwel in the Cape, has made the news this week as he has been awarded an honorary MBE by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. He received the award in recognition of his services to the people of Tristan da Cunha which is home to some 273 Britons. Interestingly it was Clarence and his crew that won the SAMSA Seafarer of the Year Award in 2011 for these very actions.

As captain of the fishing vessel, MV Edinburgh, October was involved in the rescue of the crew of the cargo carrier Oliva which ran aground at Nightingale in March 2011, as well as coming to the aid of hundreds of oil covered penguins who were taken to Tristan da Cunha for rehabilitation.

October remains modest in the face of the accolade, saying that he and his crew only did what any crew in that situation would have done.

Congratulations to Clarence October, another proud moment for the South African maritime industry.

The Green Party of SA is in the news this week with its continued attempts to suspend all commercial fishing of West Coast rock lobster.

Leader, Judith Sole, lodged a court application in the Western Cape High Court this week to suspend all commercial fishing of West Coast rock lobster as, according to Sole, rock lobster is only at 3.1 percent of its stock levels and need to be increased by a minimum of 20 percent to meet international standards of best practise.

At the time of deciding the fishing rights of West Coast rock lobster for 2013, DAFF was made aware of this, but in an unprecedented occurance, decided to ignore the information. Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, along with fisheries deputy director, Greta Apelgren-Narkedien, are the official respondents in the case.

Sole has further requested that strict measures be implemented to protect West Coast rock lobster and that governement supply restitution packages to artisanal fishermen during the suspension period.

Unfortunately, Sole is once again acting without the assistance of legal council and, although her heart seems to be in the right place and her concerns are more than warranted, she will surely require some assistance when taking on the minister and her team.

Commodore Darren White, captain of the SAS Charlotte Maxeke, also made the news this week after a message that he placed in a bottle over two years ago and 1600 nautical miles away found its way back to him on our shores.

The surprising event occured when White, based in Argentina for exercise drills with South American navies, decided to place a photograph of his crew along with a message in a wine bottle and throw it over board to see what would happen.

What happened was that just over two years later it washed up on a Pringle bay beach where Heinz Modricky and his son discovered it; made contact with Commodore White and returned the bottle to him.

An unusual occurance indeed.

The big news in the press this week is the latest expedition of the SA Agulhas. The vessel left from Cape Town earlier this week in an attempt to conduct the first ever journey across the icy Antarctic in winter. To add to the prestige of the mission is the fact that world renowned explorer, Randulph Fiennes, is on board the vessel. The objectives are to transport Fiennes and his team to Antarctica, off-load equipment and assist in setting up a base before returning to Cape Town.

Deputy Transport Minister was at the launch and said that “This Coldest Journey is humankind’s first ever attempt in history at crossing the Antarctic in winter.”

“The research conducted on the expedition would benefit the entire world. This is history in the making,” said a very proud Tsietsi Mokhele, chief executive SAMSA.

We will be follwing the vessel’s progress.

There was more bad news in the press this week regarding the countries abalone stocks. In a report presented to the portfolio committee by fisheries scientists and officials it is predicited that abalone will be totally extinct by the year 2035, if not sooner.

Once the abalone stock has completely disappeared, South Africa will have not only experienced a great loss from an environmental point of view, but also from a financial and job creation perspective.

As abalone stocks have diminished, younger and younger abalone have been poached and the slow-growing shellfish has simply not had enough time to mature and procreate. In certain areas abalone is already regarded as ‘functionally extinct’, meaning that there are not enough mature adult abalone left to breed.

This is a very sad state of affairs and one must ask where the blame lies?

This week the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) approved the global total allowable catch (TAC) for West Coast lobster for the 2012/13 season. News reports highlight that many in the industry, however, are concerned that the level is far to high, particularly in light of the critical West Coast rock lobster recovery plan.

Shaheen Moolla of Feike has once again been extremely outspoken about DAFF and Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson in particular, who has been accused of meddling in the TAC determination, stating, “Although much-vaunted in parliament as part of the department of fisheries ‘successes’ the implementation of … the rock lobster operational management procedure has essentially been tossed out of the window.”

With the Africana still in the Simon’s Town dockyard under repair and no indication of when the vessel will be able to return to work in order to complete the crucial pelagic survey, it has been reported in the press this week that the fisheries department has been thrown a lifeline. The fishing industry has come forward and offered to lend the fisheries department a vessel, the Compass Challenger, to replace the Africana, in order to ensure that the survey can continue.

Fisheries spokesman Lionel Adendorf said that the department welcomed the offer and was currently putting the necessary processes into place .

Congratulations to the fishing industry – it is not only a ‘boer’ that can make a plan.

The big fishing news of the week is that the West Coast rock lobster season is open. The announcement was made by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) on Tuesday morning and the season will run from November 15 to April1, 2013.

In typical DAFF style though, many permit seekers have been unable to obtain their permits at the Post Office and have, in fact, been turned away, as post office employees did not know what to charge for the permits.

Fisheries department spokesman, Lionel Adendorf stated that the price for a permit had remained unchanged from last year’s price of R92 and that this information had been communicated to post office staff.

Another case of miscommunication.

Officials from the fisheries branch of DAFF communicated to parliament this week that the number of abalone being poached was high above the legal quota and that abalone had become ‘functionally extinct’, particularly in the area from Hawston to Hermanus. This means that there are too few abalone left to be able to sufficiently increase the population.

This situation comes as no surprise to people within the industry who have been warning of this eventuality for years. Unfortunately, too little has been done too late. Where does the responibility and, more importantly, the solution lie?

Very gingerly mentioned in the press this week was the fact that the research vessel, the Africana, is still in the naval dockyard in Simon’s Town under repair. There has been no official word as to when the vessel will be able to resume its work, but would that word be worth much anyway?

The fisheries research vessel, the Africana, had to be towed into False Bay this week after an on board power failure apparently caused by water in the vessel’s fuel tanks.

The vessel, which has had a fair share of media attention since being handed over to the Navy, was in the process of completing the sardine and anchovy stock survey and had just rounded Cape Point when it lost power. The SA Navy, presently managing the research vessels for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported that the SAS Amatola and the SAS Galeshwe had been sent to the vessel’s rescue.

Commander Cara Pratten, SA Navy spokeswoman, said that once an investigation had been concluded and all fuel lines had been checked, the Africana would be back at work by Thursday.

With the media hungry to follow up on this promise, the Africana was once again in the news when she did not sail on Thursday as planned. Commander Pratten was quoted as saying that if all goes according to plan the Africana will set sail again on Saturday afternoon. We shall wait and see.

Parliament also heard many complaints this week about the state of disrepair of the 30 year old vessel, which probably only has another five years of service left. The Department of Fisheries has requested an amount of R600 million from the Treasury to replace the vessel, but the request has not been approved as yet.

This week yet another meeting of the agriculture, forestry and fisheries portfolio committee took place with much of the discussion focusing on the management of South Africa’s research and patrol vessels. It would seem that after managing the vessels since March this year, the SA Navy has now expressed an interest in actually owning the vessels.

Acting deputy director-general of fisheries, Joseph Sebola, was quick to point out that at this point Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson had reached no decision regarding the fate of these vessels and was looking at various options – including outsourcing – which would possibly mean seperating the patrol from the research functions of these vessels.

There are some big decisions to be made. Let us hope that the minister can apply her mind to them quickly so that the fate of these extremely important vessels can be settled once and for all.

Failing this, we can expect some more negative news headlines closer to the 31 March deadline!