Chumming for your chum (part three)

The National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act, 2008 (Act 24 of 2008) forbids to “dump at sea any waste or other material” in the South African waters without a permit (s 70(1)(e)(i)). It is not obvious that the hake off-cuts used to attract the seagulls constitute “waste” for the purposes of the Act. In terms of s 1(1), the term “waste” means “any substance, whether or not that substance can be re-used, recycled or recovered (i) that is surplus, unwanted, rejected, discarded, abandoned or disposed of; (ii) that the generator has no further use of, for the purposes of production, reprocessing or consumption; and (iii) that is discharged or deposited in a manner that may detrimentally impact on the environment” (emphasis added). While one would readily concede that requirements (i) and (ii) are met, it can be argued that requirement (iii) is not. Such an argument would entail raising doubts as to whether the once-off throwing of a few off-cuts overboard may detrimentally impact on the environment. Moreover, it could also be argued that the actions of Raggy Charters do not constitute the discharge of an effluent, which is prohibited by s 69 of the Act. In this case, the argument would be based on the fact that the Act defines the term “effluent” as meaning “(a) any liquid discharged into the coastal environment as waste, and includes any substance dissolved or suspended in the liquid; or (b) liquid which is a different temperature from the body of water into which it is being discharged”, and that the off-cuts do not constitute a liquid.

Finally, it may be pointed out that, for the purposes of the Regulations for the Management of White Shark Cage Diving, 2008 (made in terms of s 77(1)(b), 2(g) and 2(y) of the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998 (Act 18 of 1998) and published under Government Notice R724 of 2008 in Government Gazette 31211 of 4 July 2008), the term “chumming” means “to attract white sharks by any means”. Regulation 8 provides that: “(1) No person other than a white shark cage diving operator may engage in chumming to attract white sharks. (2) Chumming may only be conducted within the areas stipulated in the [operator’s] permit. (3) Chumming may only be conducted in the manner set out in the white shark cage diving permit conditions”.