A characterisation of the paddle-ski fishery in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) paddle-ski fishery in South Africa consists mainly of light-weight fishing kayaks operated by a single fisher in the marine nearshore environment. The social, economic, management and fisheries parameters of this sector were investigated during the period December 2006–February 2008. Socio-economic data were obtained by means of online and telephone surveys. Effort data were collected from three sources: launch site registers, daily counts conducted during shark-meshing operations of the KZN Shark Board, and from a bimonthly aerial survey. Catch data were collected primarily during compliance inspections undertaken by the provincial fisheries management authority. Because there are no formal data on the paddle-ski fishery, this study serves as a baseline assessment. It was estimated that there was a minimum of 650 participants in the fishery who annually undertook 6 685 outings, accounting for a total retained catch of 17 462 fish from 57 different species. This total estimated cat...