Large Pelagics

South African participation in the long-lining sector is fairly new. The harvesting of tuna and swordfish by longline has historically been undertaken by Japanese and Taiwanese fleets, fishing in South African waters under bilateral licensing agreements. Participation by South African fishers in the large pelagics fishery, and in particular the tuna longline and swordfish fisheries, was made possible by the decision of the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2002 to not renew the international fishing licenses of Japanese and Taiwanese longline vessels to catch tuna and swordfish in South African waters. These agreements terminated at the end of January 2003.

As a coastal state that has ratified the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, South Africa is obliged to develop and manage a fishery for large pelagic species in cooperation with the relevant Regional Fisheries Management Organisations' ("RFMO's") and in accordance with their existing management and control measures. The availability of tuna and swordfish stocks in South African waters, coupled with a renewed interest in the longlining of tunas by South Africans convinced South Africa's fisheries department in 1997 to grant experimental permits for the longlining of tunas.

Participants in the experimental fishery consisted of 20 then-existing tuna pole quota holders and 10 non tuna pole quota holders.

The objectives for the experimental fishery were to -

• develop a performance history in tuna fishing so that the relevant RFMO's would be more inclined to allocate country quotas to South Africa;
• develop local technological and fishing expertise in the tuna longlining industry; and
• collect biological and fisheries data in order to provide a scientific basis for the management of a South African commercial large pelagics fishery.

The experimental fishery demonstrated that South African participants in the fishery were capable of adequately catching swordfish. The commercial shark longline fishery, tuna pole fishery, handline fisheries and the recreational sector all catch tuna as a target species or as a by-catch. The tunas caught by these sectors are mostly longfin (albacore) and yellowfin tuna. The shark longline fishery is restricted in terms of permit conditions to a tuna bycatch of 10% (by weight) of their total catch of the target species. Commercial traditional handline vessels and recreational fishers are restricted by bag limits.

The purpose of allocating commercial fishing rights in a tuna and swordfish longline fishery is to establish an economically and environmentally sustainable South African commercial large pelagics longline fishery, which will include pelagic sharks caught by longline. The objectives of allocating commercial large pelagic longline fishing rights may be summarised as follows:

• Consolidation of fisheries targeting large pelagic species;
• The establishment of a South African Large Pelagic Longline Fishery; and
• The establishment of a competitive South African large pelagic catch database.

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Sector Challenges: Feike's analysis of the policy objectives and the rights allocated indicates the following challenges:

• The deployment of 9 South African tuna long line vessels by a group of right holders allocated rights on the basis that they would invest in the South African bo