Worrying pressure on fish stocks
HALF of the commercially exploited fish stocks in South Africa are heavily overfished and more than one in four of these species is in serious trouble, according to a fisheries report.
Just 37 percent of commercial fish stocks are healthy and optimally exploited and 13 percent are underused – or there is insufficient data on the latter to say whether they are in good nick or not.
The Status of the SA Marine Fishery Resources 2014 report, released by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana to mark World Oceans Day yesterday, assessed the 49 fish stocks that are managed by the Fisheries Department.
Head of fisheries research Kim Prochaska said the assessment had looked at “fishing pressure”.
“That is, how hard we are fishing that resource. We found 50 percent are in trouble, of which 28 percent are in serious trouble,” she said.
Perlemoenwere in “serious decline”, mainly because of rampant poaching. If poaching continued at the current rate, coupled with a commercial quota, perlemoen could become extinct between Gansbaai and Buffeljags somewhere between 2025 and 2030.
Perlemoen were also declining between Hangklip and Hermanus, while perlemoen poaching was on the increase on the West Coast, including around Robben Island.
West Coast rock lobster stocks were “severely depleted”. Prochaska said lobster stocks today represented only 2.6 percent of what they were before they began to be commercially exploited around 1890.
The Fisheries Department had embarked on a recovery plan to bring lobster stocks up to 4.8 percent of what they once were. They hoped to do so by 2021.
Prochaska said internationally fishery scientists and managers became worried when fish stocks dropped below 20 percent of pre-fished levels, and tried to keep stocks at 40 percent. “So, bringing stocks up to 4.8 percent of prefished levels by 2021 is modest – but it’s a start.”
The lobster fishery generates about R260m a year and employs about 4 200 people.
“The bad news is many of our key marine fishery resources have been overfished in the past and are now depleted.
“Our resources are, therefore, impoverished and catches are often far less than they could be. But this doesn’t have to be the case. They’re not all doomed to dwindle and disappear.”
The good news was that the hake fishery – which in value was equal to all the other fisheries combined – was in good shape.
“But it’s not always had a very happy time. In the 2006 assessment, shallow-water hake was fine, but deep-water hake was in trouble,” Prochaska said.
In 2006, the department intervened and slashed quotas between 2007 and 2009 to allow the fish to breed and recover.
“And they recovered faster than we had anticipated.”
Zokwana said overfishing was depriving future generations of enjoying what we enjoyed now.
“All over the world, fish stocks are drastically declining, South Africa is not alone,” Zokwana said.
The department would not win the battle of fighting poaching alone. Zokwana appealed to coastal residents to help the government curb poaching, and deplored those who were depleting stocks and who “bring drugs in exchange for marine resources”.
“Working with other departments, we can change the tide.”