Technology 'reducing' SA catches

2006-05-04 08:46

Cape Town - Climate change and improvements in the technological efficiency of South Africa's fishing fleets have decreased catches over the past year, said the department of environment affairs on Wednesday.

Reduced catches means fewer jobs, and unemployment was "rife" in the industry, said Dr Monde Mayekiso, marine and coastal management deputy director-general.

Chief director research for Antarctica, Dr Johann Augustyn, said there was "something amiss" in South Africa's marine environment.

On the increasing "strandings" of rock lobsters and other species along the West Coast, Augustyn said this had risen to 2 000 tons in the 1990s - compared to 600 tons the decade before.

Augustyn said: "There is little doubt there have been big changes in recent years. In Namibia there has been an increased frequency of El Nino phenomena, large amounts of warm water coming in at regular intervals.

"It seems to effect the fisheries in those areas quite badly."

TACs were pegged correctly says Mayekiso

Many scientists believe the environmental changes on the West Coast are linked to climate change.

Augustyn said: "There seems to be anomalous events all over the world used as evidence that climate change is upon us.

"Recent evidence shows there are massive changes in the Arctic and Antarctic regions - 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 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," said Mayekiso.

'We should be catching less'

"In theory, when stocks are down we should be catching less, so 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 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".

Augustyn said the increased technical efficiency of South Africa's fishing boats was problematic.

Augustyn said: "When you have high technical efficiency, you 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 they've got illegally.

"I'm not accusing the industry of fishing illegally, it's just a world wide trend."

- SAPA