South Africa to promote fisheries growth

Both marine fisheries and aquaculture are being targeted by the new policy which the government is due to introduce later this year. The new policy is part of a wider economic development programme incorporating commercial and small scale artisanal fisheries to contribute to the four themes of South Africa’s National Development Plan and Vision 2030 – sustainability, poverty reduction, inequality reduction and job creation.

Announcing the new policy after a recent meeting with Fisheries Department officials and senior management from large private fishing companies, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, told a news conference the government is looking to work with the fishing industry and support small scale fishing communities to ensure they have access to fish stocks for commercial fishing activities.

“We want to build relationships, to create a climate of consultation and work together with the fishing industry,” Ms Joemat-Pettersson said. “There is a game change in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector. The Fisheries Department has already engaged a service provider who is assisting us with the small scale fisheries policy implementation process. This provider will extend their support is assisting us with the finalisation of the policy review process.”

South Africa’s commercial fishing industry, which is estimated to be worth about 6 billion rand annually, contributes just 0.6% to the nation’s total GDP at present. However, the industry’s importance to the nation’s rural economy is far more than its share of GDP would indicate.

The minister noted the fisheries department is keen to form private public partnerships with commercial fishing companies as the fisheries sector already is regarded as a major job creator, particularly in less developed coastal regions.

Young people
In addition to creating general employment in coastal areas, the government intends to encourage young people in coastal communities to take up fishing as a career with a number of targeted initiatives.

The Small Scale Fisheries Policy approved by the Cabinet last year involves the development of a fishing rights-based allocation system for small scale fishing enterprises. One scheme recently announced includes plans to set aside a proportion of fishing quotas for fishing companies owned by young people’s organisations.

“Allocation of rights within the small scale sector, together with the reallocation of long term rights will contribute to the further transformation of the entire fisheries sector,” Ms Joemat-Pettersson said.

As part of efforts to encourage the development of small scale fishery enterprises, the minister noted the Fisheries Department is currently supporting five fish farms and has helped to set up two smallholder aquaculture producer associations.

The Draft Revised General Policy of the Allocation and Management of Fishing Rights applies to a number of fishing sectors including: hake deep sea trawl fishing; hake inshore trawl fishing; horse mackerel; small pelagic species; Patagonian toothfish; south coast rock lobster; west coast rock lobster offshore fishing; west coast lobster near shore fishing; and KwaZulu-Natal prawn trawl fishing.

Other fisheries included in the fishing rights legislation include: hake longline fishing; hake hand line fishing; squid; tuna pole fishing; seaweed; demersal shark; oysters; mussels; abalone; and fish processing establishments.

Objectives
The General Policy, which is subject to a current consultative process, has a number of key objectives including promoting food security and promoting socio-economic development through sustainable use of fishery resources.

Other objectives include broadening participation in fisheries and growth of the sector along with the provision of support and protection to promote small scale fisheries within the national fishing industry.

Work on the General Policy in addition to fishery specific policies has attracted wide interest across the fishing industry as fishing rights to eight fisheries expire in December this year: KwaZulu-Natal prawn trawl fishing; hake hand line fishing; squid; tuna pole fishing; demersal shark; oysters; white mussels; and traditional line fish.

Fishing rights are an important issue in South Africa where traditional fishing communities are diverse due in part to the country’s political history but also because of the highly diversified status of the country’s fisheries and coastline. Although more than 200 species are found in South African waters, relatively few are considered commercial species.

The issue of fishing rights has resulted in litigation in some cases where traditional communities have contested the awarding of fishing rights to small groups of fishermen.

Fishing communities considered to be subsistence fishermen are found mostly in on the Transkei coast and along the northern coast of KawZulu-Natal. These communities harvest mostly mussels and oysters.

Other coastal communities also depend on a small number of species including West Coast rock lobster, abalone, mussels and oysters.

South Africa’s marine fisheries are divided into two ecosystems along the country’s 3,620km coastline that extends from the border with Namibia in the west to the border with Mozambique in the east. The country’s total territorial waters cover 1.07 million square km.

The country’s west coast commercial fisheries are highly productive while east coast fisheries are less productive but feature a greater variety of fish species than the west coast including both local species and some found in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Production
According to government figures, total fisheries production is about 680,000 tonnes a year of which about 400,000 tonnes is for human consumption while the remaining 280,000 tonnes is used for animal feed and other purposes.

South Africa exports around 150,000 tonnes of fishery products for human consumption annually while imports amount to about 125,000 tonnes. Total fisheries supply for human consumption is about 375,000 tonnes a year for the nation of 55 million people. This is equivalent to per capita consumption of around 6.8kg per year which, although relatively low, is close to the average for sub-Saharan Africa.

Coastal communities have a higher consumption of fish than the larger inland population which eats relatively little fish. .

Total supply of fish for animal feed and other uses is less at about 200,000 tonnes annually. Exports of fish for animal feed and other uses total about 125,000 tonnes a year while imports amount to about 40,000 annually.

South Africa’s major commercial fishery species are sardine and anchovy, Cape hake, horse mackerel, rock lobster, tuna, shark, loligo squid and a variety of line fish.

The sardine and anchovy fishery is located along the west coast. Production varies each year, however, due to fluctuations in the volume of biomass in the waters. In addition, red-eye pilchard are harvested as a bycatch of sardine and anchovy fishing. Attempts to start commercial fishing in the same waters for lantern and light fish, which are valued for fish oil production, have not been successful so far.

South Africa’s hake fishery consists of two species – shallow and deep-water hake, though it is only within the past decade that the two species have been separated for commercial sale and their stocks assessed separately.

Stocks
A stock replacement strategy is in place to replace depleted stocks. As South Africa shares its hake stocks with neighbouring Namibia, the issue of managing stocks crossing national water boundaries is being handled by the Benguela Current Commission.

No tax incentives or subsidies are used to promote commercial fisheries in South Africa. To tackle overfishing and encourage depleted fishery stocks to recover, a total allowable catch (TAC) system is used to manage nine of the country’s 22 commercial fisheries.

The TAC system involves restricting fishing vessels numbers, the fishing gear used, crew numbers or sea days. A combination of measures may be used depending on the status of an individual fishery.

Strict catch limits are in place for various species including kingklip, monk fish and line fish species such as cob. Horse mackerel are an important resource caught both mid-water and by bottom trawl. A 48,000 tonnes limit is imposed for adult and 5,000 tonnes for juvenile fish to prevent over exploitation.

The inshore trawl fishery also has strict catch limits in place for the two species targeted – hake and sole.

South Africa is a member of various high seas and regional fisheries management organisations which control the catch of migratory species, particularly longfin and yellowfin tuna, that pass through the country’s waters. Bluefin tuna are caught as well though tonnage permitted is small.

South Africa is a full member of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources with a number of fishing vessels catching Patagonian toothfish around the southern ocean Prince Edward Isles.

IUU fishing
Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing is a problem for South Africa along with a number of other African nations. West Coast rock lobster is a target for IUU fishing vessels. However, the South African government has shown determination to tackle the problem, including pursuing damages in foreign courts.

Recently, on 20 June, a New York court ordered Arnold Bengis, then managing director of Hout Bay Fishing Indiustry (Pty) Ltd, his son David, and Jeffrey Noll, then chairman and present of Icebrand Seafoods and Associated Sea Fisheries in Manhattan, to pay 294 million rand (US$22.5 million) in compensation to South Africa for illegal harvesting of south and west Coast rock lobster in South African waters over a 14 year period.

The award is the largest made under the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import fish, wildlife or plants taken in violation of another country’s laws, into the United States.

The case dates back to May 2001 when South Africa’s then Marine & Coastal Management, now the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, informed the US authorities that a container of illegally harvested lobsters had been shipped from Hout Bay Fishing to New York.

The container was then intercepted by US authorities who then ran their own investigation programme.

After being charged in the United States, the three men were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment and fined a total of US$13.3 million.

In South Africa, Hout Bay Fishing paid a fine of 12 million rand ($1.2 million) and two of its fishing vessels were forfeited to the state for overfishing rock lobster between 1987 and 2001.

Aquaculture
Meanwhile, efforts to promote fisheries development recently have included the aquaculture sector. Earlier this year, South Africa’s Cabinet approved the National Aquaculture Policy Framework which provides a unified framework for the establishment and development of an industry that will contribute towards stable job creation and coastal income growth.

Aquaculture output currently is largely from mariculture production of abalone, mussels, oysters, prawns, finfish and seaweed. Mariculture output of abalone currently totals about 1,000 tones per year, oysters 230 tonnes, mussels 740 tonnes and seaweed 1,800 tonnes.

Produced mainly in the Hermanus area on the Cape south coast, abalone is the most important single mariculture species, with South Africa accounting for about 21% of this high priced species which traditional forms part of many Chinese banquets.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s fisheries export opportunities are expected to grow in future as a result of the country’s membership of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries.

To promote exports the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry recently has opened offices in Russia and India, and plans to open an office in Brazil.

Minister Joemat-Pettersson recently signed a trade agreement with Russia permitting South Africa to export fish to Russia. According to the minister, China is one of the largest export markets today for South Africa’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries products followed by Indonesia, Japan and India.

Canned sardines are a traditional fish export along with hake exports to Spain, mostly by processing plants located in Cape Town and Saldanha. Anchovies also are an important export species with most being processed into fishmeal.

Among other exports, horse mackerel are frozen whole on factory freezer ships and supplied to other African countries where they form part of the staple diet. High priced lobsters are mainly exported to Japan, China and Hong Kong, while tuna also are exported to Japan and Asia.