Page 12 - South Africa Report

Marine subsector

South Africa has an irregular coastline that creates an ecosystem that is habitat to a high variety of
different marine species. The diverse species call for different fishing gear for example: hake trawl
fishery, small pelagic seine fishery for tuna (anchovy and sardine),offshore trawl, inshore fishery, line
fisher sector, recreational line fish, midwater fishery (horse mackerel),tuna poling sector, hake trawl
fishery among others.

Country Profile
South Africa has a total of 22 commercial fisheries which are all managed in two ways in total
allowable catches (TAC), Total of allowable efforts (TAE) and a combination of the two. Other fisheries
are managed total allowable effort only which includes restriction on the number of vessels used or
gear, the number of crew members and also the open and closed sea days.
The Republic of South Africa
Use of operational Management Procedures (OMPs) theses are agreed procedures between scientists,
resource managers and the fishing industries on the issues of resource sustainability. Commercial
fisheries are also managed by use of specific conditions for example the millimeters (85mm to110mm
stretch mesh that is allowable for trawling) that should be observed

Aquaculture subsector

South Africa’s marine based and freshwater sector is growing at great speed due the global demand
of species such as the abalone, black mussel, oyster, prawn, Finfish and seaweed. The industry only
contribute 4 per cent to the global market, although its volume is low it helps in reduction of the
potential pressure on the wild fishes (DAFF 2011). The abalone culture is most important and highly
farmed of all fishes in terms of its volume and employment and it is centered around the Hermanus
area on the Cape South coast. In 2008, marine production of abalone was (1037 tonnes), mussels
(737 tonnes), prawns (11 tonnes), finfish (3 tonnes) and seaweed (1,834 tonnes).

Freshwater culture has not adopted well because of lack of suitable waters for farming however on
small scale fish such has as catfish, cray fish, and tilapia are farmed in highlands of South Africa and
salmon farmed in Western Cape. However there a drastic decline in freshwater aqua production in
the resent years, from a level of 2200 tonnes in 2003 to 1400 tonnes in recent years.

Recreational subsector
South Africa has an extensive coastline so the recreational fishing activities around the coast vary. The
activities include spear fishing, sline fishing, boat sking, beaches and estuaries

Food security

Food security coastal communities dependent heavily on Subsistence fish farming, however this has
not played a big role in food security in South Africa because of the large community base along the
coast hence alternative source of food protein are sourced. Most of the subsistence fishes active on
the coastline target and harvest linefish and anchovy (DAFF 2012: Sink et al. 2012). The WWF has
classified most traditional fishing communities’ country wide as food insecure.

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