EAF applied to the small-pelagic fishery and penguin conservation management by DFFE’s Minister Barbara Creecy

Almost exactly two years ago, we reported our excitement that DFFE’s Minister Barbara Creecy had initiated the long-overdue stakeholder process around the small pelagic fisheries management measures in relation to the necessary conservation measures for the Endangered African penguin. This extremely difficult process concluded last Friday. We applaud Minister Creecy for her political will to get South Africa back on track with the implementation of modern, systems-based approaches to management.

Creating the basis for demonstrating the effect of fisheries management measures for penguin conservation was a huge team effort, and it would not have succeeded had we not stuck it out together. We are grateful that the SARChI funding has made it possible for us to contribute to the scientific basis on which the decision was based, in direct as well as indirect ways, over the past decade. 

Special thanks are due to Dr. Richard Sherley, former Post-Doc here and now senior lecturer at the University of Exeter, UK, for his tenacity in the process and tremendous contributions into the decision process with his top-notch, rock-solid science.