Fishing for sustainable solutions : towards a communal system of rights allocation

Abstract

‘When my belly is crying, I must fill it. I can sit on the side of the road and beg for bread, but there is bread right there’, says Hahn Goliath, a fisherman in the small village of Doring Bay on South Africa’s West Coast. This is a common frustration that is shared among an estimated 30,000 subsistence fishers in 148 fishing communities along 3,200 kilometres of South African coast. In a developing country such as South Africa, the equilibrium between economic maximisation, social equity, and environmental concerns is complex, and a fine balance must be struck to promote all three needs while trying to reduce the impact on the others. South Africa has a compounded problem, as fishing does not just need to be sustainable, but also equitable. This paper will critically analyse current issues in the allocation of rights to subsistence fishers, and suggest some alternatives to these issues.