Assessment and management of South African marine resources during the period of the Benguela ecology programme: Key lessons and future directions

Three important developments in resource assessment and management during the period of the Benguela Ecology Programme are discussed. The first is the recognition of the limited information content for assessment purposes of the available data for many of the Benguela’s major pelagic and demersal resources. This has meant that management measures for these resources could attempt no more than to maintain the status quo, rather than to achieve “optimal” utilization. Secondly, a post mortem on the commercial extinction of the kingklip suggests a need to consider Bayesian methods as a means to incorporate additional information into stock assessments. Finally, changes to the management approaches for the hake and anchovy fisheries are argued to have been particular successes, notwithstanding the recent heavily reduced Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the latter resource. “Management procedures” have been developed and simulation-tested for these two resources. The implications of this approach for the future basis, whereby TACs are set for South Africa’s fisheries, are discussed.