Two species of hake are found in South African waters: the shallow-water Cape hake Merluccius capensis and the deep-water hake Merluccius paradoxus. Both species are referred to as “demersal fish” because they generally live and feed on or near the seabed (the demersal zone).
As their names suggest, the two species live at different depths: shallow-water hake have been recorded from close inshore (30m) to about 500m, with most of the population living between 100 and 300m, while deep-water hake range from depths of 110 to 1 000m, with most of the stock located between 200 and 800m. Both species increase in size the further offshore and the deeper they live and so large shallow-water hake co-exist with (and feed extensively on) smaller deep-water hake.
On the west coast, the continental shelf is narrow and most trawling is in deep water; as a result, catches are dominated by deep-water hake. In contrast, most trawling on the south coast is on the wide continental shelf (the Agulhas Bank) and shallow-water hake tends to dominate, accounting for as much as 70% of hake catches.
Although the two species are distinct, they are usually caught, processed and sold under the collective name of “Cape hake”, “Cape capensis” or “Cape haddie”.
More about the Cape hakes
Status of the stocks
Stocks of both deep water hake (Merluccius paradoxus) and shallow water hake (Merluccius capensis) are considered to be “above maximum sustainable yield”. This means the growth of the stock is in balance with fishing activity and current catch levels are sustainable over time.
The total allowable catch for hake for 2020 is 146 431 tons. The TAC was allocated to the inshore and deep-sea trawl fisheries, the hake longline and handline fisheries and the small-scale fishery. The allocation to the hake deep-sea trawl fishery was 122 431 tons, exactly the same as it was in 2019.
The two most valuable bycatch species in the deep-sea trawl fishery are kingklip and monk. These are managed by means of precautionary upper catch limits, known as PUCL. The PUCL set for monk in 2020 was slightly less than its 2019 level. For kingklip, the duration of closure of an area of kingklip spawning on the south coast (known colloquially as “the kingklip box”) was extended to December 2020, pending catch patterns during 2020.