Climate change and improvements in the technological efficiency of South Africa’s fishing fleets have led to catches hitting an historical low over the past year, says the Department of Environmental Affairs.
Reduced catches had resulted in fewer jobs and unemployment was ”rife” in the industry, marine and coastal management deputy director general Dr Monde Mayekiso told a media briefing in Cape Town on Wednesday.
”Catches of fish in the sea are at an historical low. The reasons include demand and improvements in technology, and a shift in the distribution of certain species,” he said.
His colleague, chief director research for Antarctica and islands, Dr Johann Augustyn, warned there was ”something amiss” in South Africa’s marine environment.
Commenting on the increase in the number of ”strandings” of rock lobsters and other species along the west coast, he said this had risen to more than 2 000 tons during the nineties, compared with under 600 tons the decade before.
”There is little doubt there have been big changes in recent years, starting with the northern area in Namibia, where there has been an increased frequency of El Nino phenomena and large amounts of warm water coming in at more regular intervals.
”It is seeming to effect the fisheries in those areas quite badly,” he said.
Many scientists believed the environmental changes being seen on the west coast were linked to climate change.
”There seem to be anomalous events all over the world that are being used as evidence that climate change is upon us. Recent evidence is showing there are massive changes happening in the Arctic and Antarctic regions in terms of … permafrosts melting in areas where they haven’t melted for hundreds of years.”
Asked if he thought the department’s total allowable catch (TAC) figures were pegged accurately, Mayekiso said: ”I do not think that TACs were set incorrectly, but maybe it [is] a case of we were not too wise to the deployment of more sophisticated technology to catch fish.”
He said the application of improved technology by the industry had seen it become ”too good for its own good. Because even when the fish are few, you can still catch a lot and that can accelerate the demise of your fisheries.
”In theory, when stocks are down we should be catching less, so that it becomes expensive to fish. But if you’ve got good technology … you fish even when the stocks are down, and that is a problem.”
Mayekiso also warned of shifts in the distribution of certain species, which had resulted in ”a mismatch between infrastructure and the places were the catches are made”.
An example was west coast rock lobster, which is now caught mainly between Dassen Island and Cape Point, whereas three decades ago 70% were caught in the Port Nolloth area.
A similar trend had been noted for pilchards and sardines, which were now caught mainly off the Cape south and east coast. A decade ago, over 60% of these fish were caught along the west coast.
Augustyn said the increased technical efficiency of South Africa’s fishing boats was problematic.
”When you have high technical efficiency, you often … have more effort than you need to catch the TAC, and then it is difficult to control the fisheries. There are often illegal catches in those circumstances.
”When you have a situation where you have pressure because the TAC has been decreased, and it’s economically harder for the participants to make money, they tend to use that additional effort that they’ve got illegally.
”I’m not accusing the industry of fishing illegally, it’s just a worldwide trend. Where you have too much effort, created by technical efficiency, you have this situation developing,” he said. — Sapa