The director of Hanganeni Artisanal Fishing Association (HAFA), Herman /Honeb, is outraged about illegal fishing activities in Henties Bay, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. According to /Honeb, illegal fishing is compromising the price of high value fish for its members.
“They use worms and engage in informal commercial fishing and trading activities due to unemployment and incapacity of law-enforcement. Many of them claim they want instant cash and do not want to wait for a week to have their catch taken care of as it is the procedure with HAFA.”
He added: “Big 4×4 bakkies and an increasing number of ski-boats catch fish using worms, trading within HAFA’s markets, compromising the price of high value fish. For example, Kabeljou was over-supplied and the price went down to N$28/kg”.
The director noted due to these illegal activities, HAFA has to seek inland and international markets to maintain the price of their valued fish.
“Their illegal fishing and trading interfere with our business market. Increased number of ski-boat licences have caused the market saturation; hence the prices of Kabeljou dropped drastically,” /Honeb stated while responding to questions from this publication.
HAFA is a small-scale fishing organisation (trust) founded under the custodianship of the fisheries ministry in 2003. The organisation helps small-scale fishermen and women by providing transportation, establishing a market for their catch, and dealing with the majority of their fishing needs.
/Honeb further said the HAFA line fishermen and women are using traditional methods that are inherently controlling catches and strictly abiding by the ministry’s rules and regulations, and within their operational guidelines. They also control the catches by limiting the numbers and sizes.
HAFA has engaged the fisheries ministry to seek recognition for its role in the conservation of fishery and marine resources.
According to /Honeb, HAFA has a fish shop that sells fresh fish from the ocean caught by self-employed traditional fishermen and women. The fish shop includes Kabeljou, Galjoen (black bream), and Steenbras, as well as Snoek and also fish from other suppliers such as Kingklip, hake, sole, reds, angels and calamari.
“The facility also offers take-aways, where customers may purchase fresh, well-prepared catch-of-the-day fish, including smoked fish, curry-fish, fish cakes, fish-salads, and others. HAFA also operates a fish shop in Uis and is able to supply fresh fish to Windhoek and other accessible locations at affordable prices,” he outlined.
In the short term, HAFA is focused on the enhancement of management capacity for vessel and ski-boat operations, including training of skippers, crew orientation, basic vessel management and maintenances, targeting HAFA staff and small-scale fishers.
Another targeted area is to enhance quality standards for a processing facility to improve the quality of fish products to uphold the brand of fresh fish from the ocean. It further aims to improve sales and marketing by promoting line fish as prime fish, especially Kabeljou and Galjoen.