Fishing Nets — St Helena Bay Harbour
Stating the obvious, fishing net making & repair is a critical part of the fishing industry in St Helena Bay, and creates much-needed employment for many.
St Helena Bay is one of the most active fishing harbours on the South African West Coast aka Weskus. The boats go out, the fish come in, and somewhere in between, an enormous amount of net maintenance keeps it all running.
Net making and repair happens right on the harbour floor, often in the open. The work is labour-intensive and skilled. Lengths of netting spread across the ground, workers moving methodically through the mesh, replacing sections, reattaching weights and floats. It's not glamorous, but it's constant.
The nets themselves are surprisingly large. The orange and yellow floats, roughly the size of a spanspek, mark the top line, while lead weights the size of golf balls hold the bottom down. A single net can weigh hundreds of kilograms once wet.
What doesn't make it back gets lost at sea. Discarded or broken-free nets drift for years, eventually washing up on West Coast beaches as tangled flotsam, sometimes with whatever they caught along the way still inside.
The harbour is worth a visit just to watch this side of the industry up close. It’s, functional and visually fascinating!
Scale view of fishing nets on harbour floor, St Helena Bay.
Fishing nets and orange floats at St Helena Bay harbour
Scale view of fishing nets on harbour floor, St Helena Bay
The fishing nets make for marvelous textures!
Lunch time..
Net repair workers at St Helena Bay fishing harbour, South Africa
Patterns and textures of the fishing ropes and nets.
Lead weights and netting detail, St Helena Bay. Each of those lead weights are the size of a golf ball..
These floats are about the size of a spanspek/sweet melon..
Net repair workers at St Helena Bay fishing harbour, South Africa.
Nets often end up on the beaches, after tumbling around in the sea for years, possibly ensnaring sea creatures along the way.
See more images of flotsam here..
