Status of the South African Marine Fishery Resources 2020

The purpose of the Status of the Marine Fisheries Resources 2020 report is to make available information related to the status of South Africa’s exploited marine fishery resources. The output largely reflects the work of the Fisheries Research and Development Chief Directorate and its partners up to and including 2019. A quick-overview at the beginning of each section provides an indication of stock status and fishing pressure, colour-coded for ease of reference. Historical overfishing may have reduced some stocks to depleted or heavily depleted levels and rebuilding these stocks to optimal levels that are ecologically and commercially sustainable requires reduced fishing pressure. Such rebuilding can take several years or even decades as the rate of recovery is dependent on the level of decrease in fishing pressure, the biology of the species and fluctuations in the environment. Additionally, short-lived species (e.g. anchovy and squid) typically show substantial interannual fluctuations in population size; these could lead to the status of that resource being considered depleted in one year to optimal in the next. Five categories are defined for stock status, ranging from ‘Abundant’ through to ‘Heavily depleted’, and including an ‘Unknown’ category for which there are insufficient or conflicting data to enable a status estimate. Fishing pressure is defined within four categories, from ‘Light’ through ‘Optimal’ to ‘Heavy’, and again including an ‘Unknown’ category for data-poor species.