South Africa: Small-Scale Fishers Warn of Declining Catches, Big Policy Gaps

Along South Africa’s coast, small-scale fishers report declining sardine runs, more unpredictable catches and shifts in species composition – changes they say are not reflected in current fisheries policy. With about 147 small-scale fishing communities and more than 29,000 fishers nationwide, the sector faces reduced quotas and ongoing disputes over rights allocations, even as many coastal households depend on marine resources for income and food security.

On a mid-winter morning off the Cape coast, the sea is grey and glassy, a welcome respite between the north-west-driven storms.

Sitting on a boat, well beyond the backline, there is a stillness that you don’t get in summer. The beaches are empty, gone are the holidaymakers, the yellowtail have moved offshore and the howling south-easter has died down for the winter.

While this quiet is natural, existing long before we arrived and probably long after we are gone, it reminds me of a much more disturbing absence.

In South Africa’s small fishing harbours, many fishers describe a quiet shift in what comes off the line – trips that once yielded kob, yellowtail and hake are increasingly unpredictable, and in some areas they report much sparser catches and a broader mix of smaller, less commercially targeted fish.

Sardine shoals – once the lifeblood of coastal food webs nearshore – have thinned dramatically, their arrival delayed or absent, and even veteran netters shrug at what they’re seeing. Cape fishers are vocal about these shifts, describing an unprecedented absence of baitfish that disrupts line fisheries and coastal food webs.

By Daily Maverick.