November 21 marks the annual international celebration World Fisheries Day. This day is an important opportunity to celebrate the worlds fishers and their crucial role in global food security. Small-scale fishers play a vital role as food providers in their communities, especially in rural areas. In South Africa, small-scale fishers have been struggling for decades to gain recognition in the fisheries sector, leading to the development and implementation of a Small-Scale Fisheries Policy.
However, fishers all over the coast still struggle due to the lack of meaningful support to their livelihoods, a permit system that doesn’t match their practices and the encroachment of their fishing grounds in favour of conservation, mining and other extractive developments.