SA's fishing industry is a story

Months of conversations with people who live from the sea, or live with the consequences of how it is being managed, have revealed the competing realities and provide useful lessons for the future. By Don Pinnock

- Don Pinnock

Bringing in the day's catch.

(Travis Daniels)

From industrial trawlers to handline fishers, from scientists modelling biomass to officials trying to enforce the law with thinning budgets, everyone is working on the same ocean, but from very different angles.

What follows is not a verdict, but a synthesis: what we've learned by listening across the spectrum, where the real sticking points lie, what has worked and where there's genuine room for optimism about the future.

Scientists are clear that local knowledge is valuable - but it cannot substitute for population-level monitoring. A reef that feels “full” to one fisher may still be biologically overexploited

One of the most important lessons is that South Africa does have a fisheries management system that works - at least on paper.

The country pioneered sophisticated, science-based approaches to setting catch limits, particularly through feedback-driven management procedures that adjust total allowable catches (TACs) in response to changing stock indicators. Internationally, South African fisheries science is still highly respected, especially in sectors like hake, where long-term management has prevented collapse and enabled recovery.