Ocean, time and value: speaking about the sea in Kassiesbaai

Abstract

This article looks at the manner in which different parties engage with the issue of fishing rights on the inter-personal and public levels over the issue of fishing rights allocation in South Africa. Taking the historic fishing village of Kassiesbaai on the Cape's south coast as the case-site, this article outlines the profound effect that implementation of the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998 (MLRA) has had on the residents and how the debate over who has the right to fish is structured around different understandings of the core concepts of ‘ocean’, time’, and ‘value’. A general lack of trust between involved parties is both exacerbated by and serves to perpetuate the miscommunication that hampers the conversation between the residents of Kassiesbaai and role-players in government and the marine fisheries research community. This paper identifies particular nodes of discrepancy and argues that they constitute significant obstacles to communication.