Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa

Marine week 2006 has come and gone, but the problems, which beset the fisheries of the world, continue.

The truth of the matter is that the combined international fishing fleet, much of it subsidized by governments, is more than twice as large as the fish stocks can accommodate. The net result, if you’ll excuse the pun, is rapidly falling fish populations with numerous regional collapses. White Steenbras is a South African example where this is down to less than 5% of historical levels. Our much reported on abalone fishery is alleged by some to be down to a mere 1 % of historical levels in the wild owing to continued violent criminal activity which the authorities are unable to control. Even that mainstay of fish and chip shops and seafood retailers, hake or stockfish, is not as healthy as it should be because of over-fishing of mature adults and pressure to enlarge the number of quotas.

Instead of working hard at curtailing demand and educating the public the commercial response to the crisis has been to look at alternative sources of fish to satisfy demand. In some cases this involves marketing the hitherto by catch or throw away fish to an undiscerning public. More dangerously however there is increasing pressure to develop aquaculture on a massive scale and so farm desirable species like salmon either in ocean cages or in inland pools. Here the focus is on producing valuable weight rather than healthy biodiversity. The exercise involves the use of antibiotics, tinkering with genetics, the production of contaminated water and the conversion of tonnes of one fish species like sardines to make fewer tonnes of food for the required type. Internationally the industry has developed quickly, learning some expensive economic and environmental lessons along the way.

Despite a difficult coastline for it South Africa is now moving into the aquaculture industry with resolve and, one would hope, salutary knowledge gained through the mistakes of others. Commercial mussels and oysters are already well established, financially viable and environmentally acceptable. Experiments with some our own indigenous species like Kob and Geelbek are more problematic for some of the reasons mentioned above and the import of exotic freshwater fish such as Tilapia, Carp and Australian crawfish have frequently proved to be disastrous as they can escape and make our waterways unhealthy for threatened locals like the Clanwilliam Redfin.

The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) is a project undertaken by WWF, supported by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and endorsed by the Wildlife Society. It sets out to inform seafood eaters and traders about the importance of consumer knowledge and choices in selection from the marine menu with an easy to use, practical, colour-coded guide. More information from www.wwf.org.za/sassi. It such cautionary texts that we need to guide us towards “sustainable development” more than demand-driven business plans that promise quick profits.