An Old Wives’ Tale… Foreign Vessels in Our Waters?

Foreign fishing vessels incursions into our 200-mile limit and inshore waters is an old wife’s tale. So says veteran fisherman, Jack Walsh, who tells his story …

I first became conscious of the possibility that Taiwanese and Japanese fishing boats were rumoured to be stealing tuna inside of South Africa’s territorial waters back in the 1960s. This was after several were identified, and then arrested whilst visiting Cape Town harbour for bunkers and supplies.

Following this there was an agreement with the respective countries that this would stop. It probably carried on intermittently to a very limited extent. Once a long-liner is following a shoal of tuna, it becomes irrelevant to ascertain whether you are inside or outside a line hundreds of miles offshore.