There is plenty of hope for the future of the fishing industry under certain conditions, despite suggestions to the contrary, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening of the I&J Fin-Fish Hatchery at Gansbaai, he said a recent report on global marine biodiversity concludes that if current trends continue, there is a huge risk that fisheries will collapse worldwide by 2048.
The purported reasons for this are illegal and unsustainable fishing practices, and environmental effects such as climate change.
”However, this scenario will only play itself out if we do nothing differently. There is plenty of hope that the future of fisheries will look decisively brighter if we concentrate on five key principles,” Van Schalkwyk said. These are:
- sustainable use;
- responsible allocations of fishing rights within a tight regulatory framework;
- collaborative efforts underpinned by international agreements;
- enforcement and compliance; and
- developing alternatives, such as aquaculture.
The Gansbaai hatchery, the first in the country, is a serious effort to develop marine aquaculture.
In 2004, ”capture-fisheries” and aquaculture supplied the world with about 106-million tonnes of food fish, the highest apparent per capita supply on record. Of this total, aquaculture accounted for 43%.
Preliminary estimates for 2005 suggested that total world fishery production reached almost 142-million tonnes, an increase of more than one million tonnes compared with 2004, as well as a new record level of production.
There was a decrease in the contribution of capture fisheries to human consumption, but this was offset by an increase in the aquaculture contribution, he said.
”These facts tell a story: aquaculture provides almost half the world’s seafood, filling a void created by the depletion of wild fish stocks.”
Aquaculture continues to grow more rapidly than all other animal food-producing sectors, with a global average annual growth rate of 8,8% a year since 1970, compared with only 1,2% for capture fisheries and 2,8% for meat farming on land.
Van Schalkwyk said at least 15 species of line fish in South Africa have collapsed (including white steenbras, galjoen, silver cob, red steenbras, red stumpnose, dusky cob and geelbek), making alternatives, such as line-fish farming, important to consider.
Of about 150 different line-fish species, only two are currently regarded as optimally exploited — yellow tail and snoek. The other species are considered to fall between collapsed, threatened and over-exploited.
Developing line-fish farming, such as the fin-fish initiative, could augment the availability of line fish and assist with rebuilding wild stocks.
It is estimated that the farm will produce about 1 000 tonnes within the first year, valued at R30 a kilogram, and about 100 jobs, he said. — Sapa