Signs of Change as Small Pelagic Sector Struggles Ahead of New Rights Allocations

The draft policy on the allocation and management of small pelagic commercial fishing rights 2021 is currently being scrutinised by the industry which will no doubt be raising some concerns. A comparison is made with the 2005 long term rights process to identify what has changed over the past 15 years.

The small pelagic sector is South Africa’s largest fishery in terms of catch with annual average catches of around 380000 tonnes over the period 1950-2020 of which 80% has been anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardinops sagax).

Other targetted species are redeye herring (Etrumeus whiteheadi), lanternfish (Lampanytodes hectoris) and lightfish (Maurolicus muelleri).