Ecosystem modeling approaches for South African fisheries management

A variety of ecosystem modeling approaches is available, some of which have been successfully applied to the southern Benguela ecosystem. How these models could be useful for Fisheries management and how they might assist in reconciling fisheries with conservation, has not always been clear. At the end of 2002, a workshop was held to introduce the concept of an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) management to South African scientists and managers. It was recommended that an EAF be implemented as an incremental process with immediate effect in South Africa. An ecosystem modeling perspective should be incorporated into existing single species management recommendations by using ecosystem models to test the implications of these recommendations. This paper describes the rich variety of ecosystem models that are being applied to the southern Benguela. Focusing on the South African small pelagic fisheries,it documents how these models are assisting the current implementation of an EAF in the southern Benguela and suggests how future management and conservation issues should be addressed in South African fisheries.