ABSTRACT
The South African pelagic fishery developed in response to a demand for canned products during World War II, initially targeting sardine and horse mackerel. The management procedure (MP) approach has been used to develop methods for setting appropriate catch limits. The annual harvest of sardine and anchovy comprises catch and bycatch specific elements, each with an associated control rule. The implementation model forms part of the operating model and consists of equations for determining how the annual catch limits which are recommended in terms of weight are removed from the age-structured population each year. Candidate MPs were thus also simulation tested against alternative plausible OMs, called robustness tests. Adult sardine and anchovy spawn mainly on the Agulhas Bank in spring and summer. In contrast, the anchovy fishery for which the catches are almost entirely converted to fishmeal targets juveniles during their southward return migration along the west coast.
