Yellowtail

Yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) are large, schooling, fast growing fish that undergo unpredictable seasonal migrations. They have a high fertility and reach sexual maturity after 2-3 years making them fairly resilient to fishing pressure. Yellowtail are the second most commonly caught species in South Africa in the linefishery sector. They are also caught in the netfishery (beach seine and gillnet), targeted in beach seine (treknet).

Linefishery

Yellowtail are caught using the traditional linefishing methods of rod and reel or handlines operating from small ski-and deckboats. Linefishing is a relatively selective fishing method which targets a large number of species many of which are reef-associated but also includes a few pelagic species. When targeting pelagic linefish species like yellowtail, the linefishery is not likely to cause significant damage to overfished, vulnerable or ETP species, which are nearly all reef-associated. The reverse is true when targeting for reef-associated linefish species. The fishery has few discards and there are very few “non-target” species landed in the sector.

Netfishery

Yellowtail is targeted in the beach seine fishery (treknet) operating in False Bay. Beach seine are long nets that are dragged along the sandy ocean floor. In areas such as False Bay, catches of yellowtail in beach seine could account for up to 77 % of the total catch in the bay, with weighted discards estimated at less than 5% of the catch. However, there are records that the fishery has impact to widespread population of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) or highly vulnerable species, including interactions with seabirds and prohibited linefish species such galjoen and white steenbraas. Yellowtail is also incidentally caught in the gillnet fishery targeting harders. Gillnets consist of a wall of netting suspended in the water column. The mesh sizes of the gillnets are designed to only allow the fish’s head through the net, and it traps their gills when the fish tries to back out. This method is not selective resulting in high levels of bycatch that may contain vulnerable species.

Linefishery

Yellowtail are caught within the inshore zone of the western and south-western Cape Management for the sector is considered partly effective. In South Africa this sector is principally managed through a total allowable effort (TAE) limitation and there are additional restrictions to protect overfished species such as bag limits (10 pp/pd) for recreational fishers. There is some concern over the impact of the small-scale fishery rights allocation beyond the recommended TAE and the continuously growing recreational sector.

Netfishery

There are several active beach-seine and gillnet fisheries throughout South Africa. By far the biggest are the fisheries for harders (or mullet), with 28 beach seine and 162 gillnet right holders operating on the West Coast from Port Nolloth to False Bay. Yellowtail is caught in netfishery (beach seine and gillnet), targeted in beach seine (treknet) operating in False Bay, and bycatch in gillnet fishery on the West coast from Port Nolloth to False Bay. However, there are records that the fishery has impact to widespread population of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) or highly vulnerable species, including interactions with seabirds, seals, and sharks. In addition, the netfishery has impact on juveniles of obligate estuary-dependent fish such as flathead grey mullet Mugil cephalus and white steenbras Lithognathus lithognathus in West Coast estuaries.