To South Africa now, and the business of illegal fishing. The disappearance of a Cape Town fisherman has highlighted the economic tensions between the fisheries department and communities who poach marine life to make ends meet. CGTN's Travers Andrews has that story.

It's been a tough week for 23-year-old Bruce van Reenen. He along with many other concerned fishermen have been searching tirelessly for Durick Van Blerk -- a fisherman and close relative who remains lost at sea. He is one of many fishermen from Hangberg in Hout Bay, a poor fishing community where many are forced to resort to illegal fishing methods in a desperate attempt to put food on the table.

Not only has this latest incident shaken the community, but it's forced fishermen such as Van Reenen to re-evaluate the risks involved in these illegal fishing methods.

BRUCE VAN REENEN FISHERMAN "My cousin is gone and for me it's like I can't do it again because they are going to do it to me also but if I can find him and get him, I will feel better and it will feel better for the community to go to sea again but now at the moment we are feeling sad for him."

Many here believe they simply have no choice as fishing quotas are far and few between. Some as young as 13 risk lives and limb for high-value species such as West Coast rock lobster, a fishery that is over-harvested.

With nothing but a surfboard as a makeshift vessel, this catch yielded just two undersized lobster. But others venture further out to sea where it gets even riskier.

BRUCE VAN REENEN FISHERMAN "We go with boats to sea, we don't work with deck boats but we work on rubber ducks and that is the boats that take us to sea to go get, we don't say to go poach but we go catch some crayfish, some perlemoen (abalone) but we do it for our family, we don't do it for gangsterism. I got a child of 8 months, my work is to work on the sea, I don't have other work, I didn't do metric, what can I do? For me it's like I can't go again because they done this to my cousin but that is my work."

The community have been desperate to access small scale fishing rights allocations that can sustain themselves and and the government is attempting to address this dire situation but there's not much hope on the horizon.

TRAVERS ANDREWS CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA "Poaching in Hout Bay is a microcosm of a far more broader issue facing South Africa's fishing sector."

CONROY METER FISHERMAN "90% of the families here make their living off the ocean and the living conditions due to this has been deteriorating for the past few years, because most of the allocations go to the broader side of South Africa instead of more to the coastlines, so now the people start suffering with that regard."

For van Reenen though, it remains an anxious wait while fears of venturing out start to creep in around the inherent dangers of the sea. Travers Andrews, CGTN, Cape Town.