Trawler Awareness Plett
Four locally known inshore trawlers are currently taking shelter in the lee of Robberg Peninsula.
With home ports in Port Elizabeth and Mossel Bay, they’ve been fishing the waters off Plettenberg Bay for decades.
Inshore demersal trawling began in South Africa in 1898 as a mixed fishery, today the target is mainly shallow-water hake and Agulhas sole on the central and eastern Agulhas Bank.
The fishery continues to catch a wide range of non-target species, including bycatch of soupfin sharks, smoothhound sharks, dogsharks, skates, rays, octopus, squid, kingklip, monkfish, undersized silver mob, and other linefish species.
According to a bycatch assessment in 2011 such non-target species made up 42% of the total catch by weight.
The fishery is managed in terms of catch-and-effort controls and gear/mesh-size restrictions. An independent observer programme has been in place since 2002 to collect information used in ongoing stock assessment and quota-regulation, but concerns about the impact on bycatch species remain.
Inshore trawlers are prohibited to fish in waters shallower than 30 m and are excluded from fishing in bays defined by a series of straight lines that link prominent land-marks such as Robberg Point.
Image credit: Danielle Conry and www.marinetraffic.com