Great article from the Financial Mail - http://www.financialmail.co.za/life/...shing-industry

THE SA fly-fishing world is abuzz with the idea that the tourism and retail industry around it is in jeopardy. There is a view that new regulations published by water & environmental affairs minister Edna Molewa in July "make it illegal".

"SA is unique. It's probably one of the only areas in the world where you can fish 12 months of the year. Scotland, Alaska, Argentina and New Zealand have closed seasons, but you can fish year-round in Dullstroom and the KwaZulu Natal Midlands," says fly-fishing tour guide Jonathan Boulton.

The furore erupted over the department of water & environmental affairs' attempt to control the populations of trout, bass and carp. The department is attempting to deal with a classic conundrum: exotic species such as these can take over habitats into which they are introduced but may also lie at the heart of economically important rural industries. On one side of the argument is the opinion that the regulations criminalise people in the industry. On the other is the opinion that these fish have already cost SA some of its acclaimed biodiversity and they should be controlled, if not eradicated.

SA is often described as the third most biologically diverse country in the world, after Indonesia and Brazil. SA Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity principal scientist Olaf Weyl says a 2007 survey shows SA's more than 1,5m anglers each spend an average R7500/year on the sport, and a collective R900m, and the freshwater aquaculture industry is worth an annual R40m just in sales of fish.

In addition, fishing attracts foreign tourists to SA. "I have clients who spend up to R500000 in a year on travel and equipment," says Boulton. "A trip to SA or Zimbabwe [to fish] is better value than one to the UK. A UK-based fly fisherman coming here is met at the airport and will pay R30000 [a trip] on good accommodation and a lovely sauvignon blanc at dinner. You can go to Scotland and not catch a thing. In SA it's a multibillion-rand industry. It's not just the rod, it's the trips, the Range Rover Sport."

Politician-businessman Tito Mboweni, known for his love of fly-fishing, which he says he finds "immeasurably refreshing and soothing", says he would be "extremely saddened" if it was curbed or destroyed in SA. "No developmental state would really want to curb fly-fishing. Instead, we should harness its developmental possibilities ... In Dullstroom, we started an academy where we trained young black lodge workers how to fish. I officiated at their graduation. They now act as guides for tourists who visit their lodges and make some good money from tips. Great developmental, tourist and environmental initiative," he says.

Mboweni says fly-fishing "allows me to think because the environment is usually very relaxing. But one has always to be aware of one's surroundings lest one catches more tree branches than trout! I like the fact that the further into the dam or upstream you cast, the better the chance of catching the big one. I am afraid that this might also be a lesson in certain aspects of life!"

But if Durban lawyer Ian Cox is correct, Mboweni and enthusiasts like him may see their meditative sport come to an abrupt end. Cox says those involved in the carp, bass and trout fishing industries face fines of up to R10m, or jail sentences up to 10 years, because these fish were "mistakenly" classified by the department as "invaders", not "aliens". That means growing, breeding, transporting, selling, donating or "exercising control" over them is illegal.

Environmental affairs deputy director-general Guy Preston says it is not illegal to do any of these things with these fish, providing existing laws are complied with, as the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Nem:ba) regulations will take effect only when a notice is signed by Molewa, probably in March next year. The department intends using the next six months to finalise maps that demarcate the areas within which "specific commercially important fish species (including trout, bass and carp) can be exempted from specific restricted activities", he says.

This has been discussed with various fishing associations and the department has indicated its preparedness "to accept the presence of these fishes in certain waters - because of the recreational value and, to a lesser extent, food benefits, that they bring, but also because it would be virtually impossible to think of eradication of these species in so many waterways that they have invaded", he says.

Cox says Preston's interpretation of Nem:ba is incorrect, and that as soon as the list of invasive species was published, it came into operation. He also says that the way in which the relevant Nem:ba clauses have been drafted, and the regulations published, puts the squeeze on officials such as Preston, who are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Whoever is correct, industry players are confused. "We are gathering funds to get expert legal opinion. Trout were established in SA waters with the active support of government more than 100 years ago. Now this government says that shouldn't have happened. There is a very substantial fly-fishing industry that has arisen, breeders, tackle shops, hotels and facilities ... massive investment. We find it very difficult to understand what is in government's mind," says Federation of SA Flyfishers (Fosaf) executive committee member Bill Bainbridge.

Fosaf acknowledges these fish species "do pose a problem", but argues that they have been in SA rivers for so long "no-one knows what the system used to be like; whatever damage they caused, they caused long ago".

"We will help government police pristine areas [into which trout, bass and carp have not been introduced], but for heaven's sake, don't mess around with the industry," Bainbridge says. Weyl says while peer-reviewed research that empirically shows a link between trout and biodiversity loss in SA is "still urgently required", there is a "body of international empirical data" suggesting these fish particularly will continue to threaten SA's biodiversity, especially if allowed to transfer to new areas.

Others, including the SA Carp Society, have pointed out that carp are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as one of the world's top 100 invasive species. Weyl says many alien angling species "should be actively managed to limit further impact, as well as to maximise social and economic effects from the resource in areas that are already invaded" and that a management plan such as exists for "other conflict species such as pine trees" should be drawn up.

This, it seems, is what the department of water & environmental affairs has attempted to do in its regulations, though how well this has been done is - obviously - debatable.