NATIONAL NEWS - The low levels of West Coast Rock Lobster (kreef) due to overfishing has led to an extremely high risk of the species becoming commercially extinct within the next five years.
This will have significant ecological and socio-economic consequences.
The World Wildlife Fund-SA (WWF-SA) has taken the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to court over its alleged failure to heed scientific advice relating to the total allowable catch (TAC) of the West Coast Rock Lobster and therefore its failure to sustain the long-term survival of the crustacean.
The Western Cape High Court will hear the WWF-SA’s semi-urgent notice of motion on 22 August 2018 when the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape will also apply to be friends of the court (amicus curiae) in the case brought against the DAFF.
The conservation organization first approached the court on 27 June, contesting the department’s decision to set the 2017/18 TAC at an unacceptably high number, and in doing so undermining the crustacean’s long term survival as well as disregarding the rights of fishers who depend on the resource.
The WWF is asking the court to set aside the department’s decision to allocate a TAC of 1924,08 tons in the 2017/18 season because of inconsistencies in the decision-making process and on the basis that the decision was irrational and cannot sustain the long-term survival of either the rock lobster resource or the fishers that depend on it.
