Conservationists and law enforcement agencies are turning to citizen reporting to help tackle what they believe is a growing illegal gillnetting problem in South Africa’s rivers and estuaries, amid concerns that cheap, readily-available nets are fuelling the illicit practice.
A newly-launched Gillnet Reporting App, developed through a partnership involving the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment (DFFE), WildTrust, law enforcement agencies and conservation authorities, aims to identify hotspots of illegal gillnetting and help direct enforcement efforts.
But researchers say the true scale of the problem remains poorly understood.
“We think that's an underestimate and that’s the idea around the app. We’re trying to quantify and understand where it’s happening the most to identify hotspots,” says Dr Jennifer Olbers, a senior scientist at WildTrust, referring to estimates that reported gillnetting incidents have increased more than eightfold over the past decade.
Gillnets are walls of netting suspended in the water that indiscriminately entangle fish and other aquatic animals. Their fine mesh and passive design make them unselective, catching fish of all sizes, including juveniles, as well as endangered species and unintended bycatch.
This can disrupt fish populations by removing breeding adults and juveniles before they reproduce. Estuaries are particularly vulnerable because they serve as nurseries for many fish, sharks and rays. WildTrust notes that some shark and ray species are more endangered than rhinos.
Gillnets also contribute to overfishing, biodiversity loss and habitat degradation, while posing risks to paddlers, swimmers and other water users. The synthetic monofilament nets can persist for years as “ghost nets”, continuing to trap wildlife and damage aquatic habitats.
“They seem to be very easy to come by and they’re extremely cheap, so we think that it’s been driven by the availability of the nets,” Olbers says. The nets are reportedly being sold under other descriptions, including as vegetable bags, soccer nets and crop covers, making regulation and enforcement difficult.
While conservation authorities have long warned that gillnets threaten fish populations and vulnerable species, Olbers says the full ecological impact “hasn’t been quantified properly and the app will give us that ability”.
Although government agencies and conservation authorities have reports documenting local impacts, South Africa lacks a comprehensive picture of where illegal gillnetting is occurring and how severely it is affecting fish stocks and aquatic wildlife.
The app is intended to address the information gap. Members of the public can report suspected gillnetting activity, helping authorities build a national database of incidents and identify areas requiring targeted enforcement.
Olbers says reports submitted through the app will not necessarily trigger an immediate response. Instead, the information will be used to guide operations and deploy limited enforcement resources more effectively.
“If a lot of reports come from a specific river, those law enforcement teams will focus on those areas first.”
Early testing suggests the approach might be working.
“We’ve been testing the app for about a year and we've certainly seen some decrease in numbers where law enforcement are working,” Olbers says, adding that areas with active enforcement and strong involvement from civilian conservation groups have recorded significant reductions in illegal gillnetting activity.
The launch also comes amid concerns about the possible commercialisation of illegally caught fish. While there are suggested links between gillnetting and organised crime, Olbers says the connections had not yet been formally established.
“What we are seeing is some KwaZulu-Natal fish species with very obvious gillnet injuries in fish shops in the Western Cape.”
Authorities have also observed fish being transported by vehicle and have investigated outlets suspected of selling illegally caught fish.
For now, however, conservationists say their priority is understanding the scale of the problem.
The long-term goal is not only to improve enforcement but also to prevent the continued spread of cheap synthetic monofilament nets, which are increasingly being found in rivers, estuaries and coastal environments, where they can continue trapping wildlife, including water monitors, birds, turtles and dolphins as so-called “ghost nets”.
The nets can drift or get stuck for years, silently trapping various animals or getting snagged in critical habitats like coral reefs, posing hazards to animals, ecosystems and people.
“We’re trying to work with various government departments to stop the use of these nets,” Olbers says. “As they come over the border, they’re just landing up in the rivers.”
There’s a general misperception that gillnetting is only for “hand-to-mouth” fishing for food, when it is in fact also organised crime, says Lieutenant Colonel Dean Nieuwoudt of the eThekwini Metropolitan Police Coastal Policing Unit.
“The information that we receive on the gillnetting app is extremely important to law enforcement as it allows us to use ‘smart policing’ techniques.”
The app gives all water users the ability to contribute to law enforcement activities by logging any gillnetting activity in waterways onto the platform, says Anthony Malgora, the acting manager: amenities coastal for aquatic safety and law enforcement at eThekwini Aquatic Safety.
“Although immediate action cannot be expected, information provided by members of the public will be used by authorities to plan their interventions accordingly.”
How to download the app
Step 1: Download (free) Survey123 from your relevant App Store.
Step 2: Open Survey123 App on your device, click on “continue without signing in”; click on the QR code symbol on the upper right-hand side and scan the QR Code to install the Gillnet Reporting App.
If you suspect that you have come across illegal gillnetting activities, report it on the Gillnet Reporting App, to your conservation agency or the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment via email: fisheries.compliance@dffe.gov.za or call 0800 205 005.