Spearfishing Regulations in Natal

The Marine Living Resources act of 1998 and the regulation gazette No6284 that goes with the act are the relevant documents to get should you like to study them in full. There are going to be some amendments made to them this year, mainly regarding size limits and a quota drop on certain species.

The main thrust of the new act was that everyone taking something from the sea would now need a permit to do so. Previously fishermen were excluded from the permit system. The regulations to the act contain all the important restrictions like size limits and bag limits.

The big change as regards the east coast rock lobster was that soft shell was no longer allowable. This occurs when the lobster sheds its shell to grow. The old act allowed a soft shell rock lobster to be caught in Kwazulu Natal but not in the Cape. The reason behind this was that the Cape rock lobster, which is a different species from the Natal, are generally found amongst the kelp and are less likely to be damaged when being caught. The Natal rock lobster hides in cracks and crevices and are generally difficult to get out and are normally minus a few legs before you can get them out of the hole they were wedged in. I think the change is fair as soft shell rock lobster do not mingle with hard shell as this would damage them, and they are always found hiding alone until their shell hardens. They are normally very easy to catch in this state.

There were big changes to the spearfishing restrictions for the Kwazulu Natal divers aswell. Previously Kwazulu Natal fell under the Natal Parks Board and was goverened by their rules. The Natal Parks Board was done away with and became Nature Conservation Services. The control of the sea then fell to the Sea Fisheries which is a national body. This meant that the 2kg minimum mass limit for speared fish in Kwazulu Natal fell away and the national size restrictions came in to play.

  1. Annexure 10 deals with the size and mass limits. The 10 fish per day quota for Kwazulu Natal divers also fell away and was replaced by the Sea Fisheries bag limits which are covered in the annexures 4,5,6,7,8.
  2. Annexure 2 Closed seasons for fish and crayfish (rocklobster)
  3. Annexure 4 is the recreational list and you are allowed 10 in total from this list but not more than 5 of any one species.
  4. Annexure 5 is the protected list and you are allowed none from this list.
  5. Annexure 6 is the critical list and you are allowed 2 in total from this list.
  6. Annexure 7 is the restricted list and you are allowed 5 in total from this list.
  7. Annexure 8 is the exploitable list and allows 10 in total to be taken. The possible amendments to these regulations are as follows.
  • Bronze Bream 5 to 2 -30cm
  • Yellow Belly rockcod 5 to 1 -60cm
  • Brusher 5-1 -60cm
  • Cat Face rockcod -55cm
  • Geelbek 10 to 2 -60cm
  • Dageraad 5 to 1 -40cm
  • Red Steenbras 2 to 1 -60cm
  • West coast Steenbras 5 to 1 -60cm
  • Red Stumpnose 5 to 1 -30cm
  • Roman 5 to 2 -30cm
  • Scotsman 5 to 1 -40cm
  • Englishman 5 to 1 -40cm
  • Poenskop 2 to 1 -50cm
  • Galjoen 5 to 2 -35cm
  • Santer 10 to 5 -30cm

These have not been enacted yet but will be confirmed or not as soon as this happens. It is interesting to note that there are a lot of fish excluded from these annexures. To name some, spade fish, rubber lip, goat fish, chub, parrot fish, surgeon, tripletail, flathead, queenfish, sea pike, prodigal son, rainbow runner, indian mirror fish, threadfin mirror fish, wahoo.

The old regulations had a note saying `and any other fish not listed in the above list` for the exploitable list,(annexure8). It could be a mistake or there is some amendment that covers this. I have tried to get clarification on this but get differing answers depending on who you talk to. If anyone has the answer to this, let me know.

Annexure 10 (regulation 25) Size and mass limits

back up to annexure list

  • Bellman : 40cm
  • Big eye tuna : 3.2kg
  • Blacktail : 20cm
  • Bluefin tuna : 6.4kg
  • Bronze bream : 30cm
  • Cape stumpnose : 20cm
  • Cape snoek : 60cm
  • Carpenter : 25cm
  • Dageraad : 30cm
  • Galjoen : 35cm
  • Garrick : 70cm
  • Glassy : 2.5cm
  • Geelbek : 60cm
  • Hottentot : 22cm
  • Kob : 40cm
  • Natal stumpnose : 25cm
  • Pinky : 7.5cm
  • Poenskop : 50cm
  • Red steenbras : 40cm
  • Red stumpnose : 30cm
  • River bream : 25cm
  • River snapper : 40cm
  • Roman : 30cm
  • Santer : 30cm
  • Scotsman : 30cm
  • Seventy-four : 40cm
  • Shad : 30cm
  • Slinger : 25cm
  • Spotted grunter : 40cm
  • Spotted rock cod (catface) : 40cm
  • Squaretail kob : 35cm
  • Strepie(karanteen) : 15cm
  • Swordfish : 25kg
  • White-edged rock cod : 40cm
  • White musselcracker : 60cm
  • White steenbras : 60cm
  • West coast steenbras : 40cm
  • White stumpnose : 25cm
  • Yellow-belly rock cod : 40cm
  • Yellowfin tuna : 3.2kg
  • Zebra : 30cm

Annexure 2 (Regulation 9) Closed seasons

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  1. Shad-from 1 september to 30 november in any year, both dates inclusive.
  2. Galjoen -from 15 october of one year to the last day of february in the following year,both dates inclusive.
  3. Pelagic fish -from 1 november of one year to 14 january in the following year, both dates inclusive.
  4. Abalone -the holder of a recreational or subsistence permit- from14 april to 15 december in any year, both dates inclusive.
  5. West coast rock lobster: the holder of a recreational or subsistence permit- from 1 may to 15 november in any year, both dates inclusive.
  6. East coast rock lobster- from 1 november of one year to the last day of february of the following year, both dates inclusive.

Annexure 4 (regulation 21) Non-saleable recreational list

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  • Baardmans (tasselfish )
  • Banded galjoen
  • * Billfishes (marlin,sailfish)
  • Blacktail (dassie)
  • Bronze bream
  • Cape knifejaw
  • Cape stumpnose
  • Galjoen
  • Garrick (leervis)
  • John brown
  • * Kingfishes excluding the bludger
  • Large-spot pompano (wave garrick)
  • Leopard cat shark
  • Natal knifejaw
  • Natal stumpnose (yellowfin bream)
  • Ragged tooth shark
  • River bream (perch)
  • River snapper (rock salmon)
  • Southern pompano
  • Springer (ten pounder)
  • Spotted grunter (tiger)
  • Spotted gulley shark
  • Stonebream
  • Striped cat shark
  • Swordfish
  • White musselcracker (brusher,cracker)
  • White steenbras (pignose grunter)

(The linefish marked with an asterisk shall include all the species in the genus, family or subclass.)

Annexure 5 (regulation 22) Specially protected list

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  • Brindle bass
  • Natal wrasse
  • Potato bass
  • Great white shark
  • Sawfishes
  • Seventy-four

Annexure 6 (regulation 22) Critical list

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  • Poenskop (black steenbras or musselcracker)
  • Red steenbras (copper steenbras)

Annexure 7 (regulation 22) Restricted list

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  • Bludger (kingfish)
  • Blue hottentot (copper bream)
  • Dageraad
  • Dane
  • Shad (elf)
  • Englishman
  • Hake (stockfish)
  • Kob (salmon,squaretail,daga)
  • Red stumpnose (miss lucy)
  • *Rock cods (groupers)
  • Roman
  • Scotsman
  • Slinger
  • West coast steenbras
  • Zebra (wildeperd)

(The linefish marked with an asterisk shall include all the species in the genus, family or subclass.)

Annexure 8 (regulation 22) Exploitable list

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  • Blueskin (trawl soldier)
  • Cape gurnard (cape sea robin)
  • Cape snoek
  • Cape yellowtail
  • Carpenter (silverfish)
  • Dorado (dolphinfish)
  • * Elasmobranchs (subclass elasmobranchii, excluding great white shark, ragged tooth shark, spotted gulley shark, striped cat shark and leopard cat shark.
  • Geelbek (cape salmon)
  • Hottentot
  • Javelin grunter
  • King mackerel (couta)
  • Panga
  • Queen mackerel (natal snoek)
  • Red tjor-tjor (sand soldier)
  • Santer (soldier)
  • Snapper salmon
  • Squaretail kob
  • * Tunas (tunny)
  • White stumpnose

(The linefish marked with an asterisk shall include all the species in the genus, family or subclass.)