On 3 April, the South African Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries announced that this sector would be spared from the stringent lockdown restrictions to fight COVID-19 disease. When the lockdown was announced, fishermen from the Western and Northern Cape coastal regions were not allowed to travel outside their community to fish, even with their fishing permits. In the middle of high season for the catching of snoek, a fish that generates large income for local fishing communities and is key for food security in the coastal regions, this was a hard blow for the Cape fishers.
After a week of back and forth contacts with the South African Small-scale Fisheries Collective (SASSFC), a civil society movement of fishers in the four coastal provinces, the Department of Fisheries has put in place several measures to ensure that fishermen can go out at sea, such as the issuance of a regulation to allow fishermen to travel and register the accommodation where they can overnight. Fishers also have to respect distancing and strict hygiene provisions, both on board of their vessels, and in their transport vehicles.
Furthermore, buyers are also allowed to travel so they can sell fish in their communities and ensure food security of South African. Informal traders can also continue their activities. Until now, small-scale fishermen have been able to sell most of their catches and are keeping informed of the latest updates and measures via WhatsApp groups. Exports markets, however, are closed for now.
SASSFC continues its exchanges with the Department of Fisheries because although fishers can go fishing, there are still many people in fishing communities without an income and require assistance with food.
So far, there are approximately 2,500 COVID-19 cases in South Africa, and about 35 deaths, but no case among fishermen.