FOREIGN FISHING VESSELS: REGULATIONS GAZETTED ON ENTERING SA WATERS

FOREIGN FISHING VESSELS: REGULATIONS GAZETTED ON ENTERING SA WATERS

• 22 August 2025
• Fisheries & Aquaculture
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has gazetted regulations on the entry of foreign fishing vessels into South African waters. Immediately effective, the new regulations were first released in draft form in January 2023 for public comment. A revised version incorporating some of the input received was gazetted in February 2025 for further comment, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

Applicable to any foreign fishing vessel intending to enter South African waters, among other things the new regulations are expected to:

• deter, prevent and possibly even ‘eliminate’ illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and
• restrict the trans-shipment of fish and equipment at sea.

To that end, they include provisions dealing with:

• the prior procedural obligations of a foreign fishing vessel’s master regarding:
  • entry into South African waters but not into a port
  • applying for permission to enter a port
• the Minister’s procedural obligations when:
  • authorising the issuance of a port entry permit, or
  • refusing entry to a port
• circumstances in which entry to a port may not be denied
• boarding and inspecting a foreign fishing vessel
• fishing gear stowage and trans-shipment, and
• on board automatic information systems.

Please click the link below for more information:

• new regulations

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

Follow us on X @SALegalAcademy (you can also join us on LinkedIn and Facebook)

If you use this information in articles, reports and social media posts of your own, please acknowledge SA Legal Academy Policy Watch as your source

0 COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT