Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
came about. The most important arrangement to have been realised on the Indian side
of the Palk Bay is the so-called '3- and 4-day rule', which divides the days of the week
between small-scale and trawl fishers (Bavinck 2003). This rule, which was drawn up
by the civil administration for the protection of law and order, is not to any fisher
party's complete satisfaction, but accepted nonetheless. It is maintained through a rare
joining of governance forces on the Indian side, which includes civil administration,
navy, coastguard, fisheries department, and the organisations representing small-scale
and trawl fishers. The implementation of the '3- and 4-day rule' has not resolved
conflicts between the two sub-sectors completely, however. Substantial strife continues
to take place in Indian waters on the days that trawling is permitted. As Indian trawl
fishers are particularly active on the Sri Lankan side of the Palk Bay, small-scale fishing
there is particularly affected. Many small-scale fishers in northern Sri Lanka currently
refrain from fishing at all on days in which Indian trawlers are known to arrive, and
protests - including petitions to the Indian authorities and occasional boat captures -
are mounting (Scholtens et al. 2012).
9.6 SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa's coastal environment is a highly productive, diverse and dynamic system
that provides food and livelihoods for thousands of coastal dwellers and supports a
thriving industrial sector, mainly in the south western region of the country. Extending
from the Namibian border in the north west of the country to Kosi Bay in the east,
this 3000km coastline is flanked by the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Benguela
current on the west coast and the warm nutrient-poor waters of the Agulhas current
on the east coast. Similar to the Palk Bay region, relatively little is known about the
fishing activities of indigenous inhabitants prior to the industrialisation of the fishing
industry by British colonists in the early 1890s. Archival records suggest that the
early indigenous people of these coastal regions were largely nomadic pastoralists and
herders, who also engaged in shore-based harvesting of shell-fish and certain line fish
species (Parkington 1977; Deacon and Deacon 1999). There is also evidence of a small,
artisanal boat-based fishery along the west coast of South Africa from about the 1600s
(Sunde et al. 2011). During the 1800s following the abolition of slavery, many freed
slaves and their families settled along the Cape coast. This together with the rising
demand for fish from the colonial government led to the emergence of a number of
fishing settlements along this coast (Van Sittert 1992).
The industrialisation of the South African fisheries, in particular the deep sea
trawling and crayfish industries, can be traced back to the early 1900s under British
rule. From 1902 until the start of the Second World, the development of the industry
was largely financed by British capital (Croeser et al. 2006). It was not until the Great
Depression of the 1930s that the South African government could challenge British
control over the industry, reorganise the fisheries and implement access restrictions.
By the mid-1930s, the authority to manage fisheries shifted from the provinces to the
national government as the latter attempted to gain a measure of control over the
rapidly expanding commercial fishing sector (Van Sittert et al. 2006). The promulga-
tion of the Sea Shore Act in 1935 recognised the President as the 'owner of the sea
shore and the sea', and ensured that the state retained control over management of
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