Eighteen vessels had sunk off the SA coast during the past two years, claiming the lives of at least 68 people, Transport Minister Dullah Omar said yesterday. Of the 18 vessels, six were foreign and the remainder SA fishing of small vessels, he said in written reply to a parliamentary question from Francois Beukman of the New National Party. The SA Maritime Safety Authority was investigation whether there was a need to change legislation to improve safety. South Africa is in no hurry to start negotiations on an agreement on fisheries with the European Union. This was despite the fact there was a provision compelling the two parties to conclude the talks before the end of the year, a highly placed government official said.
Fishery management aims to become self-funding under the plan recently approved by cabinet.
To fund the new services needed to make fishery administration effective may add another R100m, but within a couple of years Coastal Management user charges income is expected to grow to cover the full R300m. The teeth of Coastal Management's new get effective style will be four new patrol boats. They may come with a price tag of over R500m. Three of them will be 40m in-shore boats of similar design to those used by the US Coastguard and other maritime policing services. Mr Cohen has made what can kindly be termed a very superficial evaluation of the fishing industry, in SA and worldwide.