Shad fishing closed season dates clarified
After careful consideration, and to ensure fair implementation and legal certainty, the department has confirmed that the closed season will be interpreted and enforced as above, in that the closed season will be from October 1 to November 30 each year.
Any confusion about the exact dates for the shad fishing closed season have been clarified.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has said in a statement regarding recreational fishing that the closed season for shad is October 1 to November 30 each year.
This comes after conflicting provisions in the annexures to the Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA) 1998 Regulations.
In January 2024, the department withdrew the recreational fishing brochure and said that only the MLRA regulations is the official and legally binding instrument in relation to recreational fishing.
However, the department has since noted inconsistencies between annexure 2 and annexure 7 of the MLRA regulations in respect of the closed season for shad.
Both provisions are currently in force, creating uncertainty for recreational fishers.
After careful consideration, and to ensure fair implementation and legal certainty, the department has confirmed that the closed season will be interpreted and enforced as above, in that the closed season will be from October 1 to November 30 each year.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that regulation 22 (recreational fishing) refers directly to annexure 7, and that annexure 7 was introduced later (by government notice R329 in Government Gazette 27453 of 6 April 2005) and the two month closure has been consistently applied in practice.
With shad being a highly popular, but vulnerable, species among recreational fishers, the closed season is a critical measure to protect adult breeding, prevent further resource depletion and ensure stock recovery.
The closure prohibits any person from catching, possessing, transporting or selling shad during the closed season.
Non-compliance undermines conservation measures and could result in stricter rules in future.
“We ask all resource users to respect the seasonal ban and act as ambassadors for compliance. Protecting shad now ensures that future generations will also enjoy the benefits of this iconic species,” said Dr Dion George, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
The department will initiate a process to formally align and rectify the conflicting provisions in the MLRA regulations to avoid further confusion.
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