In line with their MSC certification, the South Africa Hake Trawl fishery, represented by SADSTIA and SECIFA, has continued to advance sustainability and monitoring practices within the hake trawl fishery. The industry has committed to reporting interactions with Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) indicator species and Endangered, Threatened, and Protected (ETP) species. This commitment aims to increase the data available for monitoring trends in interactions and developing a baseline dataset for benthic habitat monitoring.
Currently, independent fishery observer coverage within the hake trawl industry is targeted at 8.5% in both the offshore and inshore sectors. This limited coverage means that not all VME and ETP species interactions are recorded, making it difficult to accurately represent catch rates across the fleet.
To address this, SADSTIA and CapMarine have collaborated to develop a user-friendly system that enables all skippers or officers onboard to directly report interactions with VME and ETP species. For the fishery to maintain its certification standards, each trawl must be monitored.
CapMarine supports the project by offering expertise in monitoring procedures, identification guides, training, and data processing. The successful implementation of this self-monitoring system will provide a valuable reference dataset to complement independent monitoring.