Traceability to Sustain the West Coast Rock Lobster
Photo Credit: WWF
From Port Nolloth on the West Coast to Gansbaai on the Southern Cape Coast, a new traceability pilot project is underway to assist rebuilding initiatives for the West Coast Rock Lobster which is now at less than 1.2% of its original population prior to fishing. To put it simply, if South Africa had 100 of these lobsters before fishing started, today we only have 1.
‘This is clearly a drastically low level for the West Coast Rock Lobster, which is the third most valuable fishery in South Africa, after the hake demersal trawl and small pelagic (sardines and anchovies) purse seine fisheries. It is also a very important fishery in terms of the livelihoods for coastal communities, but the resource has been rapidly declining year on year over the past two decades,’ says WWF’s Craig Smith who is coordinating the new West Coast Rock Lobster (WCRL) Fishery Traceability Pilot in collaboration with the West Coast Rock Lobster Association, which initiated the idea.
Funded by the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, and the IT developed by Smart Technologies, the digital traceability system is a unique compliance management tool that captures live information about catches being landed with the aim of monitoring and enforcing the West Coast Rock Lobster fishery. ‘It’s a fantastic initiative, the first-of-its-kind in South Africa which could not have come sooner if we want to save the West Coast Rock Lobster and start building up the population,’ says Poovi Pillay, Executive Head of Corporate Social Investment at Nedbank.
‘In an ideal world, government should close this fishery altogether until it recovers to at least 20% of its original population, but due to the socio-economic importance of this fishery this is easier said than done,’ Smith explains. ‘Government has reduced the total allowable catch (TAC) by 86% in the past 20 years, but this has proved to be largely ineffective in rebuilding the resource because the main challenge is Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU).’
Smith explains the current annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is around 500 tons, which is likely to allow the resource to stabilise and rebuild, but this is not happening because poaching is conservatively estimated to be at least double the annual TAC. This is in addition to the legal catches. The illegal trade is linked to abalone poaching and other organised crimes. The main market for both legal and illegal West Coast Rock Lobster is China and there is also a large local informal market developing for illegal lobster, which first gained impetus during the COVID-19 pandemic when China banned all imports of lobster
The big issue with poaching up until now has been the ineffective paper-based system. ‘Commercial and small-scale fisheries put their catch on the scale and fill out a landing slip. Those landing slips are then sent to Cape Town to be captured. Only then is it possible to assess what quota has been landed,’ Smith explains.
This can take up to a year or sometimes landing slips go missing, which means the Fishery Control Officers (FCOs) and fishery managers from the Department of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) have limited information during the fishing season to effectively manage the fishery.’
The traceability system by contrast, is immediate, and FCOs will have digital records of all permit holder catches and real-time balance of their respective quotas for the fishing season. The system notifies when a vessel is going out, and requires authorisation from the permit holder.
‘When the vessel returns to land, their catches are weighed in the presence of a catch data monitor and/or FCO all of whom have tablets or smart phones with the traceability software preloaded,’ Smith explains. ‘The catch gets signed off online by both the skipper and the officer in charge. The quantity is then automatically deducted from the permit holder’s quota.’
A permit condition requirement is that all permit holders have to use the system and that they can only offload in the presence of a catch data monitor or FCO. Once the catch information is loaded it is digitally locked in and can be monitored along the whole supply chain, from catch to transport to fish processing establishments to export or sale.’
Previously, there were too many loopholes for corruption, whereas the traceability works in tandem with down-the-line inspections, which suddenly becomes far more effective as both the legal and illegal catches are traded through the same supply chain. If for example, a truck is stopped for inspection and the lobster cargo has not been entered into the traceability system or exceeds what was inputted at landing, it gets flagged and investigated. It goes without saying that effective policing and prosecution goes hand in hand with this.
Smith says that the commercial and small-scale permit holders are supportive of the traceability tool as they are well aware of the critical state of the West Coast Rock Lobster population and the implications this has on their businesses and livelihoods.
The traceability system is due to go live during this West Coast Rock Lobster fishing season, which starts on 15 October in the Northern Cape and on 15 November for the rest of the coastline. ‘The difference in the start of season is due to the biology of lobster, with lobster in the Northern Cape ending the breeding season earlier than the Western Cape,’ Smith explains. ‘The moment DFFE releases the permit-holder information which provides the baseline quotas from which catches will be deducted, we are good to go.
ends