Red List of South African Species

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Data Deficient (DD)
Assessors: David Pollard Bruce Mann Colin Buxton Kent Carpenter Yukio Iwatsuki Farhad Kaymaram Khalid Hassan-Al-Khalf Stanley Hartmann Samsul Alam Ebrahim Abdulqader Hussain Alnazry James Bishop Ali Jassim Kawari
Contributors: Mia Comeros-Raynal Claire Gorman
Facilitators: Gina Ralph
Reviewers: Sean Fennessy

Rationale

Global

Cheimerius nufar is widespread in the Western Indian Ocean and an important food fish throughout its distribution. In South Africa, commercial CPUE remained stable from 1985 to 2000, with a notable increase following management intervention. This species exhibits life history characteristics that increase its vulnerability to overfishing, including longevity, large body size and slow growth. In addition, it may be overexploited in some heavily fished areas such as southern Mozambique, in the Arabian Sea, and in Kuwait and Bahrain; therefore, C. nufar should be carefully monitored and national stock assessments undertaken. Cheimerius nufar is widely distributed, generally abundant and, in the southern part of its range, occurs in several marine protected areas; however, given that this species has experienced localized declines, exhibits intrinsic characteristics that exacerbate its vulnerability to overfishing, and that sufficient data on abundance of this species are lacking, C. nufar is listed Data Deficient.

Persian Gulf 

In the Persian Gulf, Cheimerius nufar is an important commercial species. There are no known species-specific conservation measures for Cheimerius nufar in the Gulf. It is listed as Least Concern in the region. However, in the Arabian Sea, the species is slightly overexploited, and landings have declined in Kuwait and Bahrain. We suggest that this species is monitored in the future.

Distribution

Cheimerius nufar is widely distributed in the Western Indian Ocean from Cape Province, South Africa, to East Africa (Bauchot and Smith 1984), Madagascar and the western Mascarenes (Réunion, Mauritius), the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and from the coasts of Oman to India and Sri Lanka (Bauchot and Smith 1984, Fischer and Bianchi 1984, Smith and Smith 1986, Smith and Heemstra 1991, Randall 1995, Connell et al. 1999, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004). This species occurs from about seven to 130 m depth (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

Population trend

Trend

No stock assessments have been conducted on Cheimerius nufar. This species increased in importance in the KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) commercial line fishery between 1923 and 1985 as other larger species were fished out, and remained relatively stable between 1985–1995 (Penney et al. 1999). Surveys conducted in the Southern Cape between 1931–1933 and 1987–1993 showed an increase in commercial catch composition from 6% to 21% (Griffiths 2000). A decline in contribution to overall catch composition was recorded in southern Mozambique between 1980–1990 and 1996–1997 (Lichucha et al. 1999). In KwaZulu-Natal, the mean size of Cheimerius nufar remained similar at between 30 and 32 cm FL between 1979–1981 and 2007–2010 (Garratt 1985a, B. Mann. ORI. unpublished data). However, in southern Mozambique, a decline in mean size was recorded from 395 mm FL in 1987 to 355 mm FL in 1996 (Lichucha et al. 1999), although it appears to have stabilized since then (Fennessy et al. 2012). The m:f sex ratio was slightly skewed in favour of females in Mozambique 1:1.5 (Piotrovski 1990), and was not much changed (1:1.2) in 2006-2007 (Torres 2009), KwaZulu-Natal had a ratio of 1:2.5 (Garratt 1985a) and the Eastern Cape 1:2 (Coetzee 1983) and little change has been observed in KwaZulu-Natal during 2007–2010 (1:2.2) (B. Mann Oceanographic Research Institute, unpublished data).

The total commercial catch for Cheimerius nufar in South Africa has remained fairly stable between 60–120 tonnes/annum from 1985–2007 but standardized CPUE over this period has shown a significant increase from 0.05 kg/man hr. to 0.15 kg/man hr. (NMLS unpublished data). Recreational skiboat catches from KwaZulu-Natal remained stable at around 0.1 fish and 0.1 kg per outing between 1994–1996 and 2008–2009 (Mann et al. 1997, Dunlop and Mann 2013).

Commercial data show that since 2000 fishing effort has declined dramatically in the South African line-fishery from approximately 3,000 to 450 vessels as part of the long-term rights allocation process implemented in 2006 (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 2012). 

Global FAO catch statistics show the importance of C. nufar across its entire distributional range and although there are large fluctuations, catches from 1987–2011 show an increasing trend. Landings from Bahrain were 16.0 tonnes, 8.5 tonnes, 10.4 tonnes for 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively (E. Abdulqader pers comm. 2013). In Kuwait, landings declined from 44.6 tonnes in 2000 to 12.6 tonnes in 2009 (J. Bishop pers comm. 2013) revealing a 72% decline in 10 years. Catches were not reported from Abu Dhabi (S. Hartmann pers comm. 2013) but this species is common in markets throughout the Persian Gulf.

Al-Marzuqi (2011) randomly sampled commercial catches for Cheimerius nufar landed by various types of artisanal gears on a monthly basis from April 2005 to March 2007 in the Arabian Sea off Oman. The mean size at first capture was calculated to be 31.4 cm TL, which is smaller than the mean size at sexual maturity (33.7 cm TL for males and 31.9 cm TL for females), and also smaller than the size at which maximum yield per recruit occurs (40.6 cm TL). Al-Marzuqi (2011) estimated the natural, fishing and total mortality of Cheimerius nufar to be 0.61 per year, 0.68 per year and 1.27 per year, respectively. The exploitation rate for 2005-2007 was estimated to be 0.52 per year. Al-Marzuqi (2011) concluded that the Cheimerius nufar stock was marginally overfished, assuming the optimal exploitation rate is close to 0.5 per year and the optimal sustainable yield is achieved when natural and fishing mortality are equal (Gulland 1971). Individuals measuring up to 29 cm TL contributed 42% of the pooled catch data, indicating that sizeable portions of immature fish are being caught before they are able to spawn, suggesting that recruitment overfishing is occurring. Al-Marzuqi (2011) concluded that this warranted implementation of a minimum legal size for capture and also suggested a reduction in effort of 17%.

FAO RECOFI (Regional Commission for Fisheries) Capture Production (2004-2011)
FAO RECOFI landings do not provide a clear trend in the Persian Gulf. In 2004, 55 tonnes of Cheimerius nufar were harvested, decreased to 37 tonnes in 2005, followed by an increase to a peak of 87 tonnes in 2007. A decline to eight tonnes in 2010 then occurred. In 2011, there was a slight increase to 10 tonnes.

Threats

The main threat to Cheimerius nufar is likely to be overfishing, as this species is extremely important to fisheries throughout its range. Although no formal stock assessments have been undertaken for C. nufar, stock status indicators such as trends in catch composition and mean size, suggest that while the stocks in South Africa appear to be stable, the stock in southern Mozambique may be over-fished (Lichucha et al. 1999). This species is the second most important commercial linefish species in KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique, and has become increasingly important in the Eastern Cape (Mann and Fennessy 2013). Approximately 40% or more of the fish (both sexes) caught in the fishery in Oman were immature, raising concerns about sustainability of the fishery (McIlwain et al. 2006, Al-Marzuqi 2011).

Uses and trade

Cheimerius nufar is an important food fish throughout its distribution and is caught with handlines, longlines and trawl gear (Fischer and Bianchi 1984) although details of catches in much of its range are not known. Cheimerius nufar is caught in the Persian Gulf using traps which make the highest catches, but catches are also made using small gill nets, longlines, and handlines. It is also collected as bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery, comprising the second highest catch. It is one of the commercially important finsish species caught in Oman's industrial trawl fishery (McIlwain et al. 2006, Al-Marzouqi 2013). 

In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Cheimerius nufar contributes approximately 25% of the total commercial and 2% of the total recreational skiboat line fish catch by weight (Dunlop and Mann 2013). This species is also an important component of the recreational and commercial skiboat fisheries in Mozambique, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape (Garratt 1985a, Smale and Buxton 1985, van der Elst 1989, Mann et al. 1997, Penney et al. 1999). In southern Mozambique, Cheimerius nufar comprises approximately 11–21% of the total commercial catch (by number) taken by line boats operating out of Maputo (Lichucha et al. 1999, Fennessy et al. 2012).

Larvae have been successfully reared artificially (Garratt et al. 1989).

Conservation

The first conservation actions for Cheimerius nufar were implemented in South African legislation in 1984 and included a minimum size limit of 25 cm TL and a daily bag limit of 10 fish per person per day (pppd) for recreational anglers (regulations in terms of the Sea Fisheries Act No. 58 of 1973). This legislation was modified in 1992 where the minimum size limit was increased to 30 cm TL (regulations in terms of the Sea Fisheries Act No. 12 of 1988). The minimum size has been maintained but the daily bag limit was dropped to five fish pppd for recreational anglers in 2005 (regulations in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act No. 18 of 1998). The number of commercial line fishing vessels licensed to fish in South African waters was effectively reduced in 2006 with the allocation of long-term rights. This has undoubtedly reduced commercial line fishing effort targeting C. nufar in South African waters (C. Wilke Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, South Africa pers. comm.). In the rest of the distributional range of C. nufar, there are no known species-specific conservation measures in place.

In addition to traditional fisheries management, a number of large marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established along the southern African coast, which are likely to provide some protection for Cheimerius nufar. These include the St Lucia and Maputaland Marine Reserves, Pondoland MPA, Bird Island MPA, Tsitsikamma MPA and De Hoop MPA. The recently proclaimed Ponta do Ouro Marine Protected Area (July 2009) should also provide further protection for C. nufar in southern Mozambique if it is effectively enforced (B. Mann pers. comm.).

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,]
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