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NAMIBIA’S rock lobster stocks are in a “poor state”, and the future of this resource is “worrisome” indicate findings by Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources scientists, said minister Derek Klazen during his annual address to the fishing industry at Walvis Bay recently.
Klazen said the pressure exerted on rock lobster stock, predominantly at Lüderitz, is “too high”.
“We have observed that up to 80% of undersized lobsters are still being caught and remedial actions are, therefore, required in order to avoid this stock from collapsing,” said Klazen.
“It is quite worrisome.”
Cabinet, in September, set the total allowable catch (TAC) for rock lobster at 180 tonnes, with especially new right holders only getting about four tonnes each to harvest.
Klazen said this is a far cry from the 900 tonnes or more TAC from earlier years, and about half from a decade ago.
“The people of Lüderitz are very dependent on this resource, and doing business from there is much more expensive than here. We have to assess how we can assist them,” he noted.
On a more positive note, monk and crab stocks are at biologically sustainable levels, and the monk stock has shown a 2% growth in total biomass to about 70 000 tonnes. Cabinet approved a monk TAC of 7 200 tonnes.
Stock assessment results for hake showed that the overall stock biomass has grown by 22% to about nearly 2,5 million tonnes, however, Klazen said that this spawning biomass is still below the biomass that can produce a maximum sustainable yield. Cabinet endorsed the hake TAC at 154 000 tonnes for the 2022/2023 fishing season.
Klazen said that stock assessment results show the current spawning stock biomass of horse mackerel is at a sustainable level, but the recruitment is below the long-term average.
The scientific survey conducted in March 2022 indicated that the stock has declined drastically.
Furthermore, the size of the fish has been decreasing over the past five decades, and catches of the midwater fishery are now continuously made up of relatively smaller sized fish.
The TAC for horse mackerel was set at 330 000 tonnes for the current season.
The pilchard stock remains in a precarious state (as it has for nearly a decade), and, therefore, the continuation of the moratorium imposed by the ministry to allow for research and monitoring. This fishery will only re-open once the stock has recovered to a biologically sustainable level.
Klazen was happy with this year’s long-fin tuna yield, compared to previous years of underperformance, which affected Namibia’s benefit from this international resource, managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) and responsible for the conservation of tuna and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.
“For the first time we harvested our quota for tuna this year. While this is good news, I am also cognisant that we have overcaught the quota, which is really a concern for ICCAT, and urge you to adhere to our allocated quota in the future.”
As for Namibia’s Cape fur seal population, chairperson of the Walvis Bay Chamber of Commerce Johnny Doesëb said that it was about time Namibia’s fisheries ministry robustly engaged scientists, environmental conservationists and activists, and the private sector, on a cohesive approach to save the fishing industry from being plundered by seals.
“If we allow the seal population to grow like this, the sustainability of this industry and the investments made by the industries will be in vain,” he warned.
Klazen said the seal population continues to grow because the pup TAC was not landed over the year. As a country subscribing to international best practices, Namibia is guided by international instruments that call for sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources based on the best scientific evidence. To this end, the ministry has started to collect data to enable the stock assessment and guide TAC allocation for bulls.
In June, Cabinet approved a seal TAC of 60 000 pups and 8 000 bulls during the 2022 fishing season, which is from July to mid-November.
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