Page 83 - Bulletin 7 2003

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The success of the Italians was due to the ways they worked together and their craft
were larger and safer, and this enabled them to fish in adverse weather. A conflict

arose out of the way the newcomers worked. They were industrious and brought new
techniques in the way fish were harvested. As opposed to the casual way the locals

worked the newcomers had to work hard because they usually had large families to

support and had to acquire money to buy equipment and, more importantly, fishing
boats. All may not agree on the way they fished – the use of set nets which were later

banned, and the way they trawled. Later on particular areas were banned to this way
of fishing.

The use of set nets may have had an effect on the pattern of fish migration as small

fish would swim through the nets but the larger ones got their gills caught in the net.

So the larger type of fish became scarce on the market causing hardship to the
smaller fisher-men. This would have caused enmity between the various fishing

groups and the retail price of fish was bound to increase, thus depriving the poor of

their source of protein.

So the casual attitude to fishing did not exist for the Italians – it was a means of
livelihood. Fishing was a full-time job for them; no part-time diversification crept

into their lives. I do not recall nor did I hear of any of these men leaving the sea to go
into any other form of employment. The sea was their life. I do not recall any but

white boat-owners. Because the Cape fishermen failed to modernize they stagnated,

while the Italian fishermen went from strength to strength and that posed the threat.
Larger, safer boats were built capable of a longer range, looking for shoals rather

than waiting for them to appear.

The state of fishing and of Rogge Bay in 1912 is described in the following extract
from the Mayor’s Minute of 1913.