The Sea as a Source of Food

The sea provides millions of tons of food per year for millions of people, and South African has fish resources that are consumed by local population and that are exported to many places. Some of the fish that are landed in Cape Town today are carefully packed, are kept under refrigeration and are flown to European or Asian cities where they are eaten at lunchtime in restaurants tomorrow.

Some – such as crayfish and some species of shellfish – are kept alive and appear in tanks in restaurants within 24 hours of their being caught off the South African coast. Tuna, also caught in local waters, or further out by foreign long-line fishing vessels, are frozen aboard and brought to Cape Town where they are stored in the harbour’s cold store to await shipment, usually in reefer containers, to Asia or North America where sushi (a delicacy made from thinly-sliced tuna) is very popular. The bait for the hooks in the long line is usually mackerel (a small fish) that is caught off the South African, Namibian and Angolan coasts. It is frozen and brought to Cape Town where it is either stored in the cold store or trans-shipped directly to the long-line fishing vessels for use as bait.

Some of the fish is canned and can be bought in supermarkets – e.g. tinned tuna, pilchards in tomato sauce, sardines – and some fish (especially anchovies and of course all the offal from fish processing) is ground to make animal food (sold as pet food in cans or in dry biscuit form and also mixed with various grains to make poultry feed) or fishmeal. Fishmeal is usually dried and bagged for use as agricultural fertilizer. It is also exported in bags, often in containers; some is even shipped in bulk.

Depletion of global marine resource

As the demand for fish increases, more sophisticated methods are used to catch fish.

• Vessels can stay at sea for longer periods, increasing the possibility of larger catches.
• Vessels have sophisticated fish-finding equipment, often sonar equipment that can find and track shoals of fish, making their netting easier.
• Vessels have large, refrigeration equipment that can keep more fish cold (or freeze the fish) for longer.
• More fishing harbours and processing plants have been built, enabling greater volumes of fish to be processed in a shorter time.
• The demand for particular species of fish (e.g. crayfish, tuna, yellowtail) increases the price which encourages people to catch those species. Sometimes this leads to the depletion of particular species on a large scale.
• More robust netting equipment (including winching gear) allows more fish to be caught.
• Poaching has become rife in many areas. In the area from Cape Hangklip to east of Hermanus, very few perlemoen (abalone) are left after serous poaching occurred over the past few years.

Because of these factors, larger volumes of fish are being caught, and fish stocks – particularly breeding stock – are being depleted. This means that some species may become extinct unless measure are taken to control the amount of fish caught.

Control of Fishing

To control the amount of fish caught, many countries introduce regulations such as the following :

• Fishermen need to apply for licences. This applies to commercial fishermen and leisure fishermen.
• Quotas are given to licensed fishermen in terms of how much fish they may catch.
• The size of the mesh in fishing nets is prescribed and may not be reduced. This is so that smaller fish (especially the breeding stock) can escape quite easily.
• Some areas (especially known fish breeding areas) are declared sanctuaries and no fishing of any kind may occur there at any time.
• In some areas, trawlers lower their nets to the seabed and tow them along to entrap fish that usually are found at the bottom of the sea, e.g. sole. This is known as bottom trawling. Some countries ban bottom trawling as it damages the seabed environment. This is especially true in areas where coral is found as trawling will damage the coral.
• Limiting the length of the fishing season. This often involves a complete ban on catching a particular species during its breeding season. Outside of the official fishing season, no fish may be caught.
• Strict regulations and heavy penalties for oil pollution (or for other pollution involving toxin) are imposed to ensure that marine life is not damaged.
• Regular patrols by the fisheries department (at sea or ashore) help to control fishing and to ensure that the regulations are adhered to.
• Imposing heavy fines on those guilty of contravening the fishing regulations (even jail sentences and the confiscation of any item that was used in the contravention of fishing regulations, e.g. confiscation of the boat and equipment used.)

Fishing vessels

The fishing industry employs millions of people worldwide. Some of these people are employed at sea aboard fishing vessels; others are employed ashore in fish canneries, packing plants, freezer plants and other fish processing plants.

Fishing vessels have a variety of designs, depending on the type of fish that they will catch and the length of time they will be at sea. These vessels range from large stern trawlers (some are 120 metres long and process the fish aboard) to small vessels a few metres long.

Desert Diamond is a stern trawler. A net is lowered through the ramp in the stern and the trawler tows the net at a specified depth through the water, catching fish as it goes. The net is then hauled aboard, the fish are sorted on board the trawler and packed, ready for the market. In some large stern trawlers, the fish is boxed aboard so that when the trawler arrives in port, the boxed fish is ready for the supermarket shelves. Some of these trawlers remain at sea for weeks until the required tonnage of fish has been caught. Photograph : Brian Ingpen

Long-line tuna vessels in Cape Town. These are used to lay long lines from which baited hooks dangle. The lines remain afloat by brightly coloured floats. The long-liner moves along the line; her crewmembers check each hook, remove any fish caught, and rebaiting hooks. The fish are brought ashore and are either processed locally or are exported frozen to countries like Japan, Korea or China. Unfortunately, this is a very indiscriminate method of fishing and often birds, turtles and dolphins are caught in this way. Photograph : Brian Ingpen

Note the orange floats or buoys (A) that keep the long line afloat. The baited hooks (B) are also shown.

The small refrigerated vessel Taisei Maru No 24. She brings frozen pilchards form the west coast to Cape Town to be loaded aboard the long-line vessels and used as bait. Photograph : Brian Ingpen

The fishing harbour, fish processing factories (canneries, fish-packing and fishmeal plants) and fishing boat repair yards at Saldanha Bay. Photograph : Andrew Ingpen

In South Africa, pilchards and anchovies are caught by relatively small fishing boats using a Purse-Seine system where the net is lowered over the side, and is towed around a shoal of fish. By winching on ropes at the bottom of the next, the net is closed and the full net is hoisted aboard the fishing boat.

Much hand-line fishing is done from small vessels to catch snoek, and other inshore fish, while crayfish are caught using crayfish traps, box-like nets into which bait is placed. The traps are laid in shallow water along parts of the Western Cape and Northern Cape coastline. When the boats return in a few hours’ time, the nets are hauled to the surface and any crayfish in the nets are then removed and brought ashore, providing they are the right size. These are regarding as a delicacy in many parts of the world and most of the crayfish caught in local waters are exported either live or the tails are frozen for export. The fishing boat above Sailfish is used for line-fishing. In the background are stern trawlers in Cape Town harbour. Photograph : Brian Ingpen