Tiger Sharks @ Aliwal (Carte Blanche 25/05/08)

[Steve Fitzjohn]

Carte Blanche ran an article last night on the tiger sharks at aliwal shoal. Summary was that a fishing charter went in and killed 3 of them and butchered them on the beach @ rocky bay. They are supposed to be protected on the shoal and have been a big tourism attraction, diving with tigers, which now seems to be a problem that they have now been killed. KZN wildlife apparently not doing anything at the moment. Did anyone else see the show ? Any comments ?

[Graeme Duane]

I researched the story for 50/50, and its really complicated. The Aliwal MPA is a newly proclaimed area, and the local fishermen are angry because they pay Marine & Coastal Management annual permit fees for access. The shark diving crowd are opperating outside a hazy set of laws, so the fishermen are frustrated. They feel that their fishing territory that they pay for has been denied them, and that the shark diving operators are just going ahead without control.

The fishing permits allow 1 shark per angler per day, but not within the MPA. Since the boat beached within the MPA, the law was broken, but it seems KZN Wildlife was not up to speed on the "new" regulations.

I really like sharks, but if you look at this from a balanced perspective, the problem is a lack of control and implementation of such within the commercial fishing and shark diving industries.

As usual, it seems governmental.

[Steve Fitzjohn]

Thanks Graeme for the feedback. With the new laws are tiger sharks protected within the Aliwal MPA ? On the show they were talking about protecting tiger sharks as per the same as great whites, not just within the Aliwal MPA. Do you think this would happen ?

[Graeme Duane]

Apparently all sharks are protected within the MPA. One thing to understand, and its this that added confusion, is that just about every MPA has different restrictions and regulations. It certainly doesn't help when the law is vague.

The volume of sharks on Aliwal is un-natural by anyones standards. On some days we see up to 80 Blacktips and 6/7 Tigers. A good example of Pavlov's dog here.

The Great White was severely threatened, so it was put on the protected list. Tigers are more widespread, so maybe not, although it would make sense given the value of them for eco-tourism. The conflict between the diving operators and the fishermen needs to be resolved though, neither party is really helping matters.

[Patrick O'Donoghue]

I am also passionate about sharks but having been mistaken as the main course before try not to think of them in purely bunnyhugger terms.I think part of the problem comes down to one of your other subjects of baiting the animals.A basic law of nature that the more abundant the food the larger the population it can support seems to be appearing at Aliwal with many more sharks around than there were in previous years (or so it appears).Although I can't have any sympathy with the killing of these sharks I think the dive operators feeding them must take some of the blame.I do not support any fishing in the MPA and think the way that commercial fisherman have been allowed to catch species that are threatened with very little restriction is indicative of the poor planning by MCM.

It also seems that the staff of MCM often don't have the knowledge to enforce laws as evidenced by a number of events where recreational fishermen at other MPAs have been apprehended for fishing in these areas but the law enforcers weren't actually sure where the boundries were.Maybe everybody needs to take a step back and consider what they should be doing to ensure long term viability of these ecosystems

[Graeme Duane]

Nicely put.