The Draft Regulations relating to Small-Scale Fishing were gazetted on Friday 6 March for public comment.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has given fishing communities and members of the public 30 days to comment on the regulations.
Masifundise is concerned that the 30 days eats into the time when the department is busy with the roll out and that the regulations are complicated that it is possible that many communities will find it hard to understand them.
The 30 day period ends on the 6 of April 2015.
The draft regulations are accompanied by a number of documents, including a final draft of a constitution for the cooperatives, a list of decommercialised and prohibited species and a small-scale expression form.
The small-scale expression form is there for fishing communities to fill in and show their interest and so they can be acknowledged as a fishing community.
“Communities and fishers need to be mobilised and the contents of the regulations need to be workshopped with them,” said Masifundise’s Michelle Joshua.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) will embark on a road show that will unpack the regulations for fishing communities. This week, communities in the South Coast of the Western Cape were informed by officials, that this will take place on Tuesday 17 March in Arniston.
Dates for other towns are available on this document:Copy of amended consultation schedule on draft regs _stakeholders