HALT OCTOPUS PERMIT AFTER WHALE DEATH

The City of Cape Town is calling on the national minister of Environment Affairs to place a moratorium (a moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law), on the exploratory octopus permit after another whale was killed.

A humpback whale carcass was found floating about 500 metres off Sunny Cove, Fish Hoek on Wednesday. On Thursday, the city retrieved the carcass, saying the whale became entangled in an octopus fishery line and drowned.

The city has called on the national department to consider suspending the permit for octopus fishing. This is the third whale entanglement and second death as a result of octopus fishery lines in the past two weeks.

The city's Gregg Oelofse stated that they are asking that the permit be suspended until such time that the equipment they use is redesigned to make sure that they don't entangle whales. Meanwhile, the Simons Town community is also calling for an immediate moratorium on all octopus trapping in False Bay.

A resident’s online petition has more than 22,000 signatures. "The petition asks for a moratorium until all stakeholders can sit down and find a solution to this problem. We really can't allow this to continue." Not only do these traps, endanger whales, and dolphins but also pose a huge risk to sea craft.

By: Aneeqa du Plessis

Comments

Popular Posts