In a detailed conversation, former fisheries expert Shaheen Moolla outlines the key divisions and ongoing crises in South Africa's fishing sector, from small-scale fishers to large corporates. He highlights issues like illegal abalone trade, collapsing stocks, and mismanagement affecting livelihoods and sustainability. The discussion sets the stage for deeper investigations into this fragmented industry.
South Africa's fishing industry is marked by deep tensions between fishers and government regulation, as explained by Shaheen Moolla, a lawyer and former head of the country's fisheries management and compliance unit. Moolla, who has advised on marine governance, describes the sector as divided into nearshore small-scale fishers—often generational families diving for abalone, collecting mussels, catching lobster, or using trek nets and hand lines for yellowtail—and a commercial side ranging from small family businesses in places like Kalk Bay to emerging black-owned firms such as Letap, and major corporates including Sea Harvest, Viking, and Oceana.
Moolla points to stagnation among the big players. Anchovy stocks face potential zero total allowable catch next year, down from 400,000 tons in the mid-2000s due to recruitment failures, while sardines are recovering and hake remains steady. Horse mackerel is unsustainable, and the trawl fleet includes vessels from the 1950s and 1960s. He questions the corporates' lack of investment in new vessels or green technologies and their passivity amid government mismanagement, noting that industry associations, often led by top executives, prioritize shareholders over the sector.
Specific crises abound. Abalone suffers from the world's largest illegal wildlife trade by volume, with nine million animals lost annually from South Africa; the legal total allowed catch is just 40 tons, dwarfed by illicit flows involving corruption, officials laundering seizures, and Chinese-owned factories like Blue Star Holdings run by Tom Sun. In January 2025, the department revoked permits from 179 divers without due process, a move challenged in court. West Coast rock lobster collapsed from its 2004 peak to zero by 2014 through bribes and misreporting, prompting Moolla to leave the department in 2018 after family death threats.
Squid management, based on total applied effort rather than quotas, has crumbled under small-scale cooperatives intended for 3,000 fishers but ballooning to 30,000-40,000, dominated by chiefs in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal who extort operators. Allocating 15% of squid rights to these groups has crippled a key export industry requiring specialized vessels. Moolla also flags opaque foreign fleets, possibly Chinese, disabling transponders, and suggests contacts like Tim Reddell of Viking Fishing and Val Arendse for trek-netting insights.
Overall, the industry has shrunk from 22 viable fisheries in 2004 to 13 today, strained by biology, climate change, corruption, and flawed transformation policies reduced to vote-buying. Enforcement is corrupt, small-scale fishers are squeezed, and corporates lag in innovation, with foreign plundering suspected.
