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This article discusses the shift from regarding illegal fishing as a fisheries management problem towards viewing it as ‘fisheries crime’, locating it within the South African and broader African context. It introduces the new fisheries crime paradigm, identifying the reasons for its emergence and outlining the legal challenges and opportunities that it presents in efforts to halt illegal fishing with reference to South Africa as an illustrative African example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previously sharing many ecological and institutional conditions, the fisheries reform processes undertaken in South Africa and Namibia in the early 1990s have produced highly different institutional trajectories. In Namibia, the institutional arrangements governing fisheries management have turned Namibia into a regional success case with relatively low degrees of illegal fishing and poaching, but in South Africa, the institutional arrangements are generally considered to be weak and characterized by noncompliance – and poaching is widespread. The overall objective of this article is to provide an institutional perspective on how to understand the dynamics of these different trajectories. In particular, the article concludes that the notion of path dependence, historical legacies, and distributional struggles provide important insights to the observed developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since 1997 the Eastern Cape of South Africa has become a major source of supply for the illicit abalone trade as illegal fishers have located a substantial abalone (Haliotis midae) resource. We determined illegal fishing effort and yield in the Port Elizabeth-based abalone fishery, and used biological indices to determine the impact of fishing on the abalone stock. The failure of the state to issue fishing rights and conduct effective sea-based compliance, combined with the incentives to fish abalone (high price, low cost, ease of access) created the conditions for a full scale illegal fishery to emerge very rapidly. By 2005, the scale of the fishery was remarkable: a fleet of 30 purpose built vessels existed, harvesting 1000–2000tons of abalone with an export value of 35–70 million USD per year. The uncontrolled fishing effort had a dramatic effect on the stock: the average size of abalone decreased significantly, densities declined in the sampling areas, but recruitment of young abalone was still observed at the heavily fished Cape Recife site. It is concluded that the illegal fishing operations and the resultant ecological effects on the abalone resource, reflect deficiencies in South Africa''s current abalone fisheries management and compliance paradigm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fishing in the Tsitsikamma National Park has officially been halted since 2001. However, the desire to fish in the Marine Protected Area remains high among the local communities in Tsitsikamma. This has led to illegal fishing practices in the park. Consequently, the reaction of the local communities was measured using semi-structured questionnaires, informal interactions, personal observations, and through a key informant workshop that was organized in the Tsitsikamma National Park. It was found that responses from local communities to fishing within the park were defined by their residence status, ethnicity, gender, income, and educational level. There is a general understanding by local communities that the purpose of the Tsitsikamma National Park is to conserve nature within its boundaries. However, there is a mismatch in the understanding of the term ‘conservation’ between the local communities and conservation officials of the South African National Parks (SANParks). Local communities consider conservation to include sustainable utilization while conservation officials from the practice pursue absolute protection of the marine fisheries resources. The majority of local communities in Tsitsikamma resent this SANParks ‘no-take’ policy on fishing. They would like access to the fisheries resources in the Tsitsikamma National Park for both subsistence and recreational purposes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]