The hand- line hake fishery has increased substantially over the last several years and concerns are beginning to emerge about the impact this will have on the inshore resource. Data collected on the South Coast between August 1998 and July 1999 was used to describe the hand-line method and estimate annual landings. Data on the size and species in long- line catches of hake caught during 1997 were already available for this study. Size distributions in trawl catches were determined from commercial category landing data reported by catch weight and depth. The species composition in these catches was determined by comparison using RV Afrikana survey data collected in the same depth regions.
Location plays a significant role in determining the sizes and species of hake caught by each gear.
A substantial amount of the hand-line hake caught on the South Coast is not reported. Inshore trawls discard a large amount of small sized M.capensis within the 100-meter isobath. A preliminary stock assessment on the status of each hake species found that M.paradoxus appears to be over-exploited while M.capensis was in better shape. This limits the application of this model for management purposes and this finding is purely theoretical at this stage. Results suggest that each hake species is under a different pattern and level of exploitation and the multi-species nature of hake stocks on the South Coast should be considered in developing optimum management policies.