Save our anglers, save our sport
We have saved the whales, the penguins, the birds, the great white shark, in fact all fauna and flora have huge protection, even our criminals are now protected. We have saved the beaches (from what and for who?), we have allowed poaching of ALL our marine resources by elements not of this country, and in so doing have banned our own citizens from freedom to exercise their right to safe recreational activities along our 5000km of coastline.
There is not one area that is safe for anglers or picnickers to feel relaxed. Anglers, now armed and angling in pairs or in groups, is the order of the day. This has impacted on citizens lifestyles to the extent that to feel safe it is advisable to stay at home and simply rot away. Quality of life is impacted on, rights are simply taken away. WHY ?. I’ll tell you why, from an anglers point of view.
For 40 years plus, anglers have been accessing these shores per vehicle to get to those far off places for the sole purpose of catching some fish for the pan, having a relaxed family outing or angling in organized and controlled competitions. Not for racing, sight seeing.
Then along came the erection of holiday homes along the coast, and with it came 4×4’s, quad bikes which were used for racing up beaches just for the hell of it during long weekends (the local recreational angler gets the blame), and holidays, the majority of these shack owners hailing from inland. Then they started claiming that the beaches near to where they have holed up belong to them and bugger whoever wants to access through their property to “their” beach. They put up booms over public roads which had access to the coastline, have forced public to pay for access, have given these public nothing in return (toilets, braai areas’s etc)
Then along came the conservationists (some who are ex poachers by the way) who now want to save the worlds population of sea birds (Oyster Catchers etc) and ghost crabs., and really does not give a damn about his own species safety. So, due to the mere word of “conservation”, these conservationists (a minority) had the ears of government by stating that nearly every specie of bird, micro organisms, crustatia, fish, dune growth and sand dunes, were been decimated by vehicles, and must be saved. This was unproven and no research was done along this coastline, as well as no consultation with the affective parties at all.
Then once the vehicles are banned (the eyes and ears of the law and conservation), to cap this ,along rocks up the poachers, Chinese, Taiwanese, locals, eradicating all perlemoen, oysters, mussels, cockles, crabs, seaweed, gill netting, rivers, fishing in reserves and reducing our own fish stocks.
ALL THIS WAS BLAMED ON THE RECREATIONAL ANGLERS VEHICLES. We were BANNED. But, the poaching continues, fishing in reserves by foreigners continues, building of holiday homes on the coast continues.
What hasn’t continued is the policing of the coast. It is left to the criminals who will think nothing of smashing your vehicles windows, mugging you, stealing, and shooting at you or simply making one’s life a living hell.
It is also left to the conservationists to creep up on the endangered Oyster Catcher birds, take eggs away, replace with plastic eggs, catch them, ring them, cage them, all in the name of conservation (To hell with the trauma caused). And guess what, the birds are still being killed, more so by cats, dogs, eagles, crows, seagulls than ever before, as the HUMAN FACTOR has been taken away from these areas and allowing these predators to do as they please (which is what nature is all about anyway). Are we not part of nature as well, or aliens from another planet
Let ORGANISED recreational angling and VEHICLE access to beaches under management and control be implemented. Issue a limited amount of permits at a price; get the applicants to do a test on how a vehicle is to be operated on the coastline, what areas to avoid. We will be willing to submit days, times, number of anglers, number of registered vehicles which may be used on any competition day.
I must inform you that all ORGANISED angling competitions under and control and regulations of Border Angling and are held on Saturdays, from 6am to 3pm. We do this due to factors that many people/public are working on the day, are at school and other sporting events, and this keeps them away from wherever the vehicles are operating. At every competition that we held we had an official from NATURE CONSERVATION with us the whole time, and he had only praise in the way the beaches, anglers and vehicles were managed. We never use bait from the rocks, we purchase from local suppliers. This world is so full of troubles and insecurity, why can we not get away and relax doing what we want to do, and that is just to fish.
Regards,
D.A.Parrish
Former Provincial Secretary and S.A.Masters national Selector
BORDER ROCK AND SURF ANGLING
EAST LONDON
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WE HAVE HAD A FAMILY COTTAGE ON THE WILD COAST FOR FOUR GENERATIONS.
AND NOW ALL OF A SARDINE WE NEED A PERMIT TO GET TO OUR LOCAL FISHING SPOT ON THE RIVER.YES YOU CAN GET ONE FOR FREE BUT WILL TAKE YOU THREE DAYS TO OBTAIN ONE AND THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS.THE DEALINGS I HAVE HAD WITH THE ENVIROMENTAL AFFAIRS IS THAT THEY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON.ONE MOMENT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FISH ON ANY RIVERS THEN YOU ARE.TRY TO BE A LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
AND AT EVERY TURN THEY WILL TRY TO FINE YOU FOR XY AND Z.PLEASE DO NOT GET WRONG I AM ALL FOR CONSERVATION,BUT LAST TIME I CHECKED IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA WE ARE ALL EQUAL.SO WHY ARE SOME OUR CITIZEN
ALLOWD TO RAPE OUR COAST LINE,STAND ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND SELL
THEIR CATCH WHICH IS ILLEGAL BY THE WAY. EVER BE PAST THE FISH RIVER CHECK IT OUT.THE QUESTION IS ARE WE JUST GOING TO SIT BACK AND COMPLAIN OR IS SOMEONE OUT THERE GOING TO RALLY SUPPORT TO TAKE THE INJUSTICE OUT OF OUR RECREATIONAL SPORT.
We as rock and surf anglers need to stand up for ourselves and get our voices heard. Their is to many irregularities with this whole situation.I fish for a club and we are affiliated to border and I feel that we are being victimised. First they stop beach driving,then decrease bag limits, bait and tackle prices always increasing and to put the cherry on the top, increase our permit fees by 500%, when are we going to get a break? Angling in all its facits creates the most revenue than rugby and soccer put together and now their is some “clever governmental idiot” that wants to exploit this. I say if we want something done instead of complaining we have to put a plan into action including other provinces and get our grieviences sorted.
Paying a little extra for Fishing licences is not a problem.
Paying 5 times more than what we are currently paying is an absolute joke… This money is to cover up for all the licences that they give away for free. (Why do these people even need licences if they are taking 50 times more than the quota???).
I can submit a foto of them aswell that i took on Sunday with them walking with grain bags of mussels on their heads… It is realy sad…
But back to the subject; here is a little idea for the Head of Enviromental Affairs. Why dont you repair/look after vehicle tracks (ie. grade them)along the Transkei coast. If people have roads that are accesable and are looked after then they wont have to keep making new track every time a road washes away or becomes to full of holes. Allow dirt roads to major fishing spots and anything inbetween can be walked too. By doing so you will keep people off where they shouldnt be driving as they wont need to make their own roads and it will also make your own departments job alot easier. At the moment it is a total joke and everyone is in the dark as to what is actualy expected of them. Every week they change things. A compromise has to be made somewhere… We all want to enjoy our coastline
Unfortunately recreational fishing is where the “buck” will stop and they (Nature Conservation) will use this as a way of defending their actions against pouching and the rest of pre fabricated excuses.
I belong to a fishing club and I love every moment of my fishing time at its fullest. Ninety five per cent of the time I do catch and release only. Every year I take out my fishing permit of R64 but thanks to someone in parliament it’s going to cost us R300 a year. Thanks for that one !!!!!
My opinion is that until Nature Conservation guys don’t take on the poachers and the REAL issues threatening our cost line, we the recreational fishermen we will always pay for the bill.
Happy fishing!!!!
We were in the Transkei past December. There the same thing. An Environmental officer check my fiance’s license, etc. She saw he had a fish and wanted to know what kind of fish it was?!?!?!?! By the way it was a kob of 67cm. My fiance asked about the locals having licenses, who where at the time raping the coast as it was a spring low tide. The answer: “Oh no they get given licenses.” My fiance saw a copy of the permit and it boiled down to that the locals could catch and collect as much as they want of anything and sell it. Fair???? No way! Once again the honest angler has to cough up and stick to rules, reg’s and permits for which he must pay dearly. D.A. Parrish we stand behind you. My fiance is a club angler and feels as strongly as you do. He has seen how certain deep-sea boating people drive along the beach to look for that right place to lauch but the JOKE is they never lauch. They just tow their boat along to cover what they are actually doing, JUST ANGLING from the beach. I’ll pay whatever it costs so that my fiance can go to some of those amazing fishing spots, which are almost an unwalkable distance along the beach.
The department of Enviromental affairs does not care about those that fish 4 enjoyment. Just this morning i sat on the rocks on the Transkei coast and watched about 30 locals with pieces of iron striping the rocks and filling grain bags with mussels. Where is the justice… The department prays on those who have the money 2 pay their stupid fines for doing nothing wrong and turn a blind eye to the locals whom they know cant contribute to their salarys. I drive to my favourite fishing spot on a road that has been there for the past 30 years, i throw back anything that is undersize and stick to my quota, yet i am treated like a criminal minding my own buisness and doing something i love. What a joke…