All-inclusive fishing regs a priority for 2025

SAMSA engages with maritime stakeholders in Cape Town

SOUTH AFRICA: Engaging with maritime stakeholders in Cape Town to discuss a host of new draft regulations, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) confirmed that they will begin drafting new fishing regulations in 2025 to create a “one stop shop” for the industry.

Highlighting the proposed changes that the industry can expect to see, Paul Baxter of SAMSA noted that the one major change will be the removal of reference to the fishing industry from the new Life-Saving Appliances and Fire Appliances Regulations – as the Authority begins to craft new sector-specific regulations for fisheries including requirements for new vessel construction.

“The fishing industry will have their own regulations. It will be a one stop shop for the fishing industry,” he told participants at the Cape Town workshop this morning.

Facilitating the session, Manager: Maritime Legislation at SAMSA, Bulelani Ncanywa, said that it was likely that the Authority would engage with the fishing industry before drafting the regulations in an effort to align these to the requirements of the sector.

“We will be working on the fishing regulations as a priority next year,” he added.

The fishing sector has been plagued with incidents over the last 12 months and the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy has mandated SAMSA with the task of improving the situation.

Both the Minister and the Deputy Minister, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, this weekend urged SAMSA to work towards finalising the report on the incident involving the fishing vessel, Lepanto earlier this year which took the lives of 11 crewmembers.

The Department of Transport is readying itself to establish a Marine Court of Enquiry in this regard and the Minister is aiming to see the finalised report before the end of the year.