Red gold in the red zone

Where have all our lobster gone? 

At one stage everybody just went crasy - harvesting undersized lobsters, cooking them right there on the boats or hiding the small tails and throwing the rest overboard. Which diver kept to the quota of 4 per person anyways? There's plenty of fish... lobster... in the ocean and lobster season is only open for 26 days... 

Even though we heard the news bulletins warning of the coming disaster of declining lobster numbers, we just went our merry ways. In fact it even looked like some people seemed intent on helping our lobster numbers to extinction. According to experts the incidence of lobster poaching doubled in the last three years. To tell the truth the West Coast rock lobster levels are currently at only 2% of what they used to be and that there had been a 20% drop in numbers in the past five years. Doesn't seem to me as if we are heeding the warnings!

Although the Portuguese explorers ate lobster when first landing in the Cape, it was long seen as the food of the poor. Even in the previous century, fishermen would see lobster as a pest and it was thrown overboard when stuck in the fishing nets. Wagon loads of dead lobster were collected and sold to farmers as fertilizer.  It was only when the first overseas costumers (especially from France) starting showing an interest, that the lobster market grew and exploded. Until recently there were lobster processing plants all along the West Coast, especially in Doring Bay, Lambert's Bay, Eland's Bay, St Helena Bay and Saldanha. It provided direct employment to an estimated 4 100 people and had an annual turnover of around R530 million.

Where did it all go wrong?

A lot of people are blaming Arnold Bengis. He was the managing director of Hout Bay Fishing Industries (Pty) Ltd and engaged in an elaborate scheme to illegally catch and export large quantities of South and West Coast rock lobster from South Africa (SA) to the US.  In South Africa, they underreported catches, bribed fisheries inspectors and submitted false information to the department. His fleet of trawlers overfished more than 2200t of West Coast rock lobster between 1987 and 2000.  On Friday 14 June 2013, the United States Court ordered that Arnold Bengis, Jeffrey Noll and David Bengis pay restitution of nearly USD 22.5 million, approximately R294 million to South Africa following extensive, unlawful harvesting of South and West Coast rock lobster in South African waters.

How will this knowledge and blame help us? Will it bring back the lobsters? And even more, is it fair to blame it all on this one man? A lot of South Africans do not flinch while breaking the same lobster laws. Did we learn anything from this disaster? Do we as ordinary South Africans abide by the simple rules that stipulate our behaviour concerning lobster:
• Get a permit for West Coast rock lobster from your local post office
• Make sure you know when the season for West Coast rock lobster opens and only fish during that time.
• Only four West Coast rock lobster are allowed per person per day.  You may not sell your catch and you must transport the lobsters in their whole state.
• Only lobster with a minimum size of 80mm may be removed from the sea.
• Respect egg-laying lobster.  You may not take out female lobsters that are in berry.

If you do not act in accordance of these rules, you are a poacher just like all these mentioned below:

In 2015 the Two Oceans Aquarium collections team came across an abandoned bag of more than 5000 undersized West Coast rock lobster tails.  At the beginning of 2017 a man from the Mannenberg district was caught with 2543 undersized lobster tails.  These are only two known incidents. What about all the ordinary people who do not keep to the rules? We just went crazy as if we had an unlimited supply of lobster waiting to be abused.

And then SASSI (WWF South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) dropped the bomb and officially red listed the West Coast rock lobster (Jasus lalandii) as Endangered.  South Africans from all walks of life are being implored to completely abstain from eating, buying or catching lobster this summer.  Although the minister of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries still does not see the seriousness of this dire situation and has, so far, not amended the total allowed catch limits to mirror this catastrophe waiting to happen.  SASSI, however, has asked, “Skip the lobster this summer and help bring the West Coast rock lobster back from the edge of commercial extinction". 

The situation is critical. Even the Lambert's Bay Lobster Festival which was planned for 17-19 March this year, was cancelled...