Note about constraints on interannual change in TAC for the anchovy fishery
OMP-08, the current management procedure used to recommend total allowable catches for sardine and anchovy and total allowable sardine bycatch in South African waters, includes a constraint on the maximum proportion by which the normal season anchovy TAC can be reduced annually. This is set at 0.25 and applies as long as the anchovy TAC in the previous year was below the two-tier threshold of 330 000t.
A suggestion was made at the PWG meeting on the 15th December 2011, when reviewing the anchovy TAC that had been recommended for the 2012 season, that consideration should be given to using the actual anchovy catch, and not the TAC, as the value to which the constraint on interannual change (a maximum decrease of 25% ) is applied. This was in reaction to the appreciable drop in anchovy biomass measured in November 2011 and associated concerns that the TAC as calculated by the OMP-08 formula was too high.