ABSTRACT
Forage species are among the most populous in the world, and demand for their products is increasing. Some would argue that forage species are at the heart of the food system. Intensive overfishing by foreign and local vessels in 1960s in southern Benguela caused the collapse of the small pelagic fisheries. Further collapses were caused in 1997 by overfishing on the west coast of South Africa and then in early 2000s by a major spatial shift on the south coast due to human-induced climate change. The significant shifts in winds in the El Niño years of 1983 and 1997 resulted in increased upwelling variability, causing a sudden upsurge in abundance of small pelagic life in the southern Benguela. Views on what caused these environmental changes are contested, but El Niño, changes in wind conditions, sea surface temperature and overfishing were frequently posited by scientists as factors affecting the productivity of small pelagic life fishing possibilities and the distribution of the resource. After the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994, the fishing industry was reformed, and fishing rights were redistributed to shift the economic dominance of white companies and to reflect better the demographics of South Africa. Achieving equity by improving the conditions of employment and changing the race profile and gender complement of the companies were key. This chapter uses the decision-making tool I-ADApT to understand how the changes in the natural system of the small pelagic fisheries in South Africa affected social and governance systems, particularly in relation to responses to the major spatial shift of small pelagics sector on the south coast.
