Local pilchard industry under review

AN INTERNATIONAL review panel has stopped over at UCT for the second in a series of annual workshops dedicated to the review and development of current management procedures for key marine resources in the Benguela Current region.

The latest gathering was held to identify and prioritise issues that would lead to an improvement in the current stock assessment and management procedures for pilchard (Sardinops sagax). UCT's Professor Doug Butterworth, one of the organisers of the event, and colleagues in the Department of Applied Mathematics had worked closely with South African and Namibian fisheries scientists, including UCT doctoral student José de Oliviera, to develop the pilchard assessment models and management procedures.

According to Dr Tony Smith of the CSIRO in Hobart, Tasmania, who regularly reviews such procedures across the world, the South African process that had been set up for review was the best he had yet encountered. "The background material is comprehensive and of a high standard, the expertise of the review panel is of a high order, and the level of participation and debate is also excellent," he said.

The National Research Foundation, Marine and Coastal Management (through the DEAT), the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations jointly funded the workshop.

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