SCIENCE AND FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA AND EUROPE

Abstract

Case studies on southern African sardine and anchovy, Cape hake and West Coast rock lobster off southern Africa are described and compared with North Sea herring and cod, and Nephrops in European waters. The comparison shows that, in Europe, despite comprehensive institutional arrangements for fisheries management based on a long history of fisheries research, management of stocks has not been particularly successful, and this contrasts with the rather more successful regime in southern Africa. The failure in Europe reflects the difficulty of curtailing international fisheries that have expanded and developed over many years on a complex of shared stocks and mixed fisheries, despite major advances in scientific methodology and strong scientific advice. The European examples also show how scientific uncertainties, and deficiencies in compliance with the Total Allowable Catch system, have contributed to management failure.

Afr. J. mar. Sci. 25: 1–23