Are SA’s fisheries at the End of the Line?

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Are SA’s fisheries at the End of the Line? Colin Attwood, Zoology Dept. and Marine Research Institute, UCT. End of the Line Mechanisms of over-fishing, and their consequences. Massive declines in fish abundance Excessive investment in gear The effects of subsidies Discarding - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Are SA’s fisheries at the End of the Line?

Colin Attwood, Zoology Dept. and Marine Research Institute, UCT

End of the LineMechanisms of over-fishing, and their

consequences

•Massive declines in fish abundance•Excessive investment in gear•The effects of subsidies•Discarding •Ignoring scientific advice •Ecosystem alteration and degradation•Exploitation of Africa by 1st world nations

Carpenter

Red stumpnose

Roman

Red steenbras

Seventy-four

Dageraad

Santer

Other

1931 to 1933 1987 to 1993

Linefish Survey data: Arniston and Struisbaai

These species dominated our temperate reefs. They briefly supported a fishery. Now they are very rare!

“74” Dageraad

Red steenbras

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1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010

Cat

ch (

ton

s)

East coast sole

Not all is bad news

Australia’s south-east trawl fishery (R.J. Gowers 2008. Environ. History 14: 265–287 )

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1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970

Cat

ch (

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Catch of north-sea cod (tonnes) ICES Advice. Cod in Subarea IV (North Sea), Division VIId (Eastern

Channel), and IIIa West (Skagerrak)

Fisheries management 1.01

Effort (# boats, or sea-days)

Su

sta

ina

ble

ha

rves

t

Zero catch Extinction(?)

Maximum sustainable yield

Let’s add a few other species

Effort (# boats, or sea-days)

Su

sta

ina

ble

ha

rves

t

?

A MDS plot of the similarity of each fish species’ contribution to different fisheries

N=507

Prawn trawl

Handline

Shore angling

Beach-seine

Purse-seine

Pelagic longlineTrawl

Estuarine angling

A MDS plot of the similarity of each fish species’ contribution to different fisheries

Prawn trawl

Trawl

Handline

Shore angling

Purse-seine

Pelagic longline

Estuarine angling

Beach-seine

A MDS plot of the similarity of each fish species’ contribution to different fisheries

It looks as if we are doing OK for 11 fish species.

Lets hope the other 496 are OK too.

• We need to consider cheap and robust mechanisms to protect our incredible diversity of fishes. I consider MPAs (or closed areas) to be in this category.

• The small-scale fisheries policy is pushing co-management. It is backed by some nice theory (reducing the commons, encouraging buy-in), but can we make it work?

Final thoughts

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