Take Me Killing

All purists seem to do these days is yammer on about how this tree is killing some bug, or that bass decimated some micro-minnow nobody has even heard about. I’m not saying we should be stocking Bison and Tigers into the Kruger Park, but it seems they have double standards. If you’re one of them tree-hugging, dirt worshippers who enjoys pruning their rose garden, long walks across the lawn, juicy steaks served with a side of fries and paired with a cab-sav from the Western Cape, you might want to stop reading right about now. Yip, Loskop Dam made the social news feed again! But this time, instead of a spear-wielding angler with a possible new SA record 8-kilo bass, staring me in the face on my IPhone’s Retina display was a near 2-kilo Kurper in a Tupperware, in the early stages of what I can only imagine became a fish cake. It was the winning fish of a local charity event. I’m all for supporting charities as much as the next guy, but what astounds me is that a significant number of Kurper brood stock ended up dead. A species that is supposedly under significant threat from bass has somehow become acceptable to harvest left right and centre; as long as they’re 150mm in length you can kill 20 of them per day, according to the Mpumalanga Nature Conservation Act of 1998, of course. Here is the kicker (I like poker references): according to the Act: “No person shall arrange, advertise, organise, control, manage or hold an angling competition for indigenous fish, unless he or she is in possession of a permit, which authorises him or her to do so”. So is the Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency (MPTA) awarding permits to host tournaments that explicitly target and harvest Blue Kurper? Wait…what? The same MPTA who’s directive claims to protect Loskop’s Blue Kurper population, issues permits to spear bass to “stop predation” of said Kurper, but then also issues permits during the breeding season to target and remove Kurper? It makes perfect sense: when you kill bass and allow the removal of Kurper during breeding season you are actually benefiting the Kurper population (?). Stellar reasoning if I ever heard it! But wait, here’s an idea: how about you place a moratorium on the removal of all Kurper for a few seasons, then and only then if need be implement sound slot limits for bass (not based on anecdotal evidence that you can’t see an abundance of dwarf species and ghielies in the ultra-clear water anymore - you can thank the mining sector for that). Also in the future adopt catch and release policies for indigenous fish to sway the balance, even running length-based competitions where you snap a photo of your catch on a ruler provided by the organisers and then... heaven forbid… put it back. The age of wanton killing of fish for the sake of killing has to come to an end; if you didn’t get the memo consider this is it. Also consider the impact of removing prime species on which hospitality businesses such as Forever Resorts base their eco-tourism on - anglers don’t spend their money at Loskop to target Mosquito Fish or Dwarf Tigers, no, they come for the excellent bass and kurper fishing. Take these big drawcards out of the equation and you relegate the surrounding community that benefits from these activities to joining the unemployment line. Perhaps it is time to lobby Department of Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom to highlight the potential job losses to the surrounding community should bass and kurper completely disappear. Until then, catch you on the water.