Otter-Trawl Fisheries of South Africa

T HE South African otter-trawl fisheries, which provide most of the fresh fish consumed in the Union and the High Commission Territories, are particularly important, not only because of the severe limitations imposed on the Union's agricultural production by natural factors but because of the contribution the industry can make toward balancing the native diet in South Africa. Of the total catch for 1948, which yielded 83.5 million pounds of fish valued at ?848,900, no less than 84 per cent both by weight and by value consisted of two species, the stockfish (Merluccius capensis), which alone furnished 79 per cent by weight though only 68 per cent by value, and the Agulhas sole (Austroglossus pectoralis), which furnished only 5 per cent by weight but I6 per cent by value.' The concentration of stockfish in large quantities off the west coast together with the occurrence of the valuable mud sole on the Agulhas Bank has given rise to regional fisheries localized by well-defined trawling grounds and centered on four ports

Biology · Fisheries management · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Marine fisheries · Otter · Marine and fisheries research