Funding sustainability in African fisheries

MSC’s Ocean Stewardship Fund awards over R40m

Projects in South Africa and Namibia are amongst the 85 successful proposals from around the world to benefit from R40 million worth of funding through the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)’s Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF).

The OSF supports fisheries, NGOs, researchers, and scientists working to promote sustainable fishing as well as marine wildlife protection globally – and the latest initiatives cover a cover a diverse array of projects including those aimed at developing deterrents for marine mammals and employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve data collection.

Technology trials

In South Africa, the deep-sea hake trawl fishery will trial innovative technologies to further improve its environmental performance; addressing fishery impacts to Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species, marine habitats and ecosystems.

These include advanced manufacturing technologies to recycle end-of-life fishing nets, testing electronic monitoring devices that will be used to ensure compliance around the use of bird scaring lines, and the employment of AI to automate data collection for better bycatch management.

“This funded project is a great opportunity to bolster our work and is of huge conservation value. These pilot projects have the potential to benefit several fisheries when more widely implemented, by encouraging the use of technologies to minimise impacts on endangered, threatened, or protected species, reduce the gear loss/ghost gear impacts, and mitigate the impacts on marine ecosystems,” notes Dr Johann Augustyn, South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association (SADSTIA).

Deterring harmful interaction

In Namibia, the hake trawl and longline fishery, has received funding to work with scientists and engineers to deploy the use of Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology (TAST), to minimise potentially harmful interactions by Cape fur seals with fishing gear.

Rooted in neuroscience, the technology emits a low range frequency to deter seals from approaching fishing gear, without damaging the hearing of the animal or other species in the area. As well as mitigating interactions with Cape fur seals during the Namibian fishery’s operations, the research hopes to gain valuable insights for other fisheries facing similar challenges with fur seal interactions.

Dr Thomas Götz, who is conducting the research with local partners, said: “For some top predators, particularly certain marine mammal species, bycatch and gear entanglement in fisheries is hugely impactful. This technology could offer a sustainable solution to long standing human-wildlife conflicts and help balance human need for food and livelihoods with wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship.”

Harvest strategy development and implementation

In the South Atlantic, a multi-stakeholder inter-governmental collaboration is receiving support to develop and implement a science-based stock-wide harvest strategy for albacore tuna, a highly migratory species.

Five MSC certified albacore tuna fisheries – including the two South African albacore fisheries recently certified to the MSC Standard – will work with NGOs and inter-continental agencies to undertake this work.

By targeting long-term sustainability and resilience, this project will create a replicable model for

the management of albacore tuna stocks.

Shana Miller, Project Director for International Fisheries Conservation at The Ocean Foundation said: “This support from MSC will help us to facilitate expansion of rigorously tested harvest strategies to South Atlantic albacore, a valuable commercial stock. Stronger management and control of large-scale fishing, including with science-based harvest strategies, will transform fisheries management, helping to protect marine biodiversity and ensuring future sustainability in a changing ocean.”

Other projects supported by the OSF this year include research into the development of an ecosystem management approach for Iberian Sardines, a long-term study into the population dynamics of California Market Squid and improvements in detailing incidental capture of sharks in the Indian Ocean.

Since its creation in 2019, MSC’s Ocean Stewardship Fund has awarded over $8.8million to support over 200 fisheries and projects worldwide, including almost 90 in developing economies. For the sixth year running, the MSC is committing 5% of annual royalties from sales of products carrying the MSC ecolabel to the OSF. Only catch from fisheries certified as sustainable according the MSC ‘s rigorous Fisheries Standard is eligible to be sold with the blue ecolabel.

“Our vision is of an ocean teeming with life and achieving this requires strong partnerships that drive innovation and deliver improvements at scale,” said Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, emphasising the beneficial impact of collaboration between scientists and fishers.

PHOTO: SA Albacore tuna vessel and crew. (Photo source: credit MSC)