Although the vessel turned out to be operating legally, the alert highlights the concerns of ordinary South Africans about rogue fishing vessels and dwindling marine resources.
According to the SA DeepSea Trawling Industry Association, about 135,000 tons of hake are caught per year about 100 nautical miles off the coast of SA, and nets are cast up to 800m deep.
The trawler was photographed close inshore near Bird Rock and Something Good, by Summerstrand resident Alan Mounsear-Wilson, who questioned whether it had permission to fish in the Bay.
“Surely this is depleting our fish stocks for the dolphins and penguins?” he said.
The Herald showed the photograph to department of forestry and fisheries inspector Dennis Mostert, who said it was a stern deep-sea hake trawler – distinguished by a pair of pillars at the stern from where the net is deployed.
“It is definitely not trawling in the photograph because there is no wake behind the vessel and no trawl cables visible,” Mostert said.
“Also, a vessel engaged in trawling lures a large number of seabirds scavenging for fish, and they’re not visible [here].”
One of the photographs showed a small tug in close attendance.
“The tug seems to be a chandler delivering supplies and it would never be there at the stern of the trawler if there was a net in the water – it would be very dangerous.
“The bird activity in this photo is just a few seagulls looking for a quick snack.”
Better-quality copies of the photograph revealed the vessel’s name, Umzabalazo, and a little detective work determined that it was owned by Echalar Fishing in Cape Town.
The company’s technical manager, Eloy Martinez, confirmed on Wednesday that the vessel belonged to Echalar, and had recently been in Algoa Bay.
“But this was simply to receive supplies and allow crew to get cellphone reception.
“We fish from the Orange River on the West Coast right around to the Port Elizabeth area but in deep water.”
Mostert emphasised deep sea trawling permit conditions were strictly monitored.
“One of the conditions for Algoa Bay is no trawling inshore of the line between the Sundays River mouth and the old Donkin Lighthouse.
“Their vessel-monitoring system must be on at all times to allow us to track them, and they must deploy bird-scaring lines whenever they put out their net.”
Global research in the late 1990s showed how large numbers of seabirds were being killed by deep sea trawlers when they swooped down as netted fish were dragged to the surface.
The birds, including a wide range of threatened albatross species, became entangled in the “trawl warp” net cables or snapped their wings on them.
In SA in 2004-2005, some 9,300 seabirds were being killed each year but by 2014 after the introduction of birdscaring lines the kill figure dropped by 90%.
Mostert said the deep sea trawlers were issued with an annual total catch quota.
When trawlers docked for any reason, department inspectors checked their permits and catch, he said.
According to the trawl association, there are at present 43 fishing companies in the sector that hold quotas and the sector was the first of its kind globally to be certified as a sustainable fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council, in 2004.