SEALS AND FISHERIES IN SOUTH-AFRICA - COMPETITION AND CONFLICT

There are two types of interactions between seals and commercial fisheries in South Africa: biological (potential competition for shared resources between the two ''predators'') and operational (conflicts during fishing operations). Using data for the 1980s. a comparison is made of relative consumption by different predators in South African waters. Seals and fisheries are not the major consumers in the system, but they do take comparable amounts. This has resulted in calls for a reduction in the seal population, but to date, no studies have shown that reducing seal predation of commercial species will make more fish available for the fisheries. Most fisheries are subject to some form of operational interaction with seals. These interactions include consumption of catches (operational consumption), disturbance of fishing operations (operational disturbance) and damage to fishing gear (operational gear damage); they vary in degree of severity, both seasonally and regionally. Estimates of the consumption by seals from fishing operations in South Africa show it to be a minimal percentage of fishery catches and a small proportion of the total predation by seals. Preliminary calculations of overall economic losses resulting from seal interference show this to be small in comparison with the wholesale value of the catches- Seals die as a result of fishing operations, and estimates of the potential mortality through entanglement, drowning and deliberate killing indicate this mortality to be of a magnitude that should be monitored.