Do more inspections of fishing boats, pleads Conservationist

LE ROUX SCHOEMAN 16/03/2009 10:33:11PM – (Die Burgher - SA)

Cape Town – The illegal shark finningthat shook Cape Town Harbour this week is only the tip of the iceberg according to Lesley Rochat, shark specialist and conservationist. Rochat, the founder of AfriOceans Conservation Alliance, pleaded that more inspections of fishing boats needs to be made in South African waters. The inspections need to be made to stop the illegal fishing of sharks and the practice of finning were the fins of live sharks are being removed and then just dumped back in the ocean. Inspectors of the Department of Tourism and Environment have during a surprise inspection layed claim to more than 1.6 tons of dried shark fins on a boat called the Chien Jui No 102, that sails under the Taiwanese flag.

The department described this as the biggest catch in the past few years. The boat has since been impounded and a case has been made against the fisherman/crew, on grounds of the number of fins in relation to the number of shark found on board. According to international regulations, the weight of the total amount of fins found on board may not exceed a fifth of the weight of the sharks carcassesfound on board. The reason for this is to prevent fisherman from throwing sharks back into the ocean after finning them. According to ms Carol Moses, a spokesperson of the department, the boat only declared 100kg of fins when they applied for permission to enter the South African waters Exclusive Economy Zone (370km around the south African coast.) They laid claim to 2 tons of dead sharks in the case of the Chien Jui No102.