Update
STILBAAI NEWS - The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) declared the Noordkapperpunt (NKP) Stone-walled fish traps as a national heritage site.
The traps are of undetermined age and origin.
These fish traps have been used and maintained by local fishermen and farmers since at least the early 20th century.
They are still usable today. Use and maintenance of these traps reside in the local community but is gradually being lost.
Research in South Africa indicates that this technology was certainly in use during colonial times, with archival evidence from 1892 onward.
However, it is entirely possible that this technology is far older.
Evidence from archaeological excavations near Stilbaai indicates that marine resources were being exploited by the ancestors of San hunter-gatherers as much as 60 000 years ago.
Relatively recent studies, however, suggest that the traps were constructed after the 1920's by local farmers.
It is possible that the European settlers who came over to South Africa brought the technology with them as there are many European examples of the construction and use of historical stone-walled fish traps.
The fish traps comprises of at least 25 stonewalled traps which form a site of invaluable and irreplaceable historic, aesthetic and scientific significance.
This is the best preserved representation of a step in the technological and economic evolution of fishing practices in South Africa.
They represent a method of exploiting marine resources that were once a common fishing method along the Southern Cape coast in historical times and possibly earlier.
It is still being used today by coastal communities.
The traps are situated in an area bounded by the high water mark in the west and a line running between the following coordinates in the east: -34.393233 S; 21.415275 E and -34.399529 S; 21.413980 E.
Read a previous article: Fish traps declared heritage site
ARTICLE: SAN-MARIÉ CRONJÉ, SUID-KAAP FORUM-JOURNALIST
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