This concern was raised on the first day of public hearings on the draft policy for small-scale fisheries, which proposes to allocate fishing rights to co-operatives.

The fishing communities said co-operatives were often led by mayors and councillors who had no knowledge of, or interest in, the fishing industry.

The communities also proposed that the department adopt a fishing charter to protect individual fishers. Communities also said big companies would continue using black fishermen for fronting and would not reward them if there was no immediate intervention from the department.

Read the complete story from Business Report.