Present Status of Fisheries Wealth in Angola

Angola has a coastline of about 1,650 km long. Two diverging current namely, the Angola current with its warm water from the north and the cold Benguella Current in the south create a strong up-welling with a high productive ecosystem for marine resources. The area from Lobito to the mouth of the Cunene River, also known as the Southern fishing zone is by far the most productive of Angola's fishing zones. In 1977, the total potential of its marine fisheries sector was estimated at more than 700,000 tonnes per annum. In 2003, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) established for demersal species was 57,600 tonnes and 160,000 tonnes for pelagic species. The most important resources are various marine demersal and pelagic fish including pilchard and the Cape and Cunene horse Mackerel (Tranchurus capensis and T. trecae). Sardinellas (Sardinella aurita and S. maderensis) are fished in parallel with horse mackerel. The rest of the catches are mainly demersal spp. and some deep water crustaceans. The demersal sppecies consist of Hake (Merluccius polli and M. capensis) and the large eye dentex spp. Tunas are caught at certain times of the year whilst some marine shrimp are also harvested from the Angolan waters. Angola also has several high value freshwater fish species, exploited by about 255 fishers. Tilapia sp. is among the most important and abundant fresh water fish found in Angola. Other species include the catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and fresh water prawns (Macrobrachuin rosenbergii). Some aquaculture ponds have been established in the country side, but due to lack of investment, proper training and the impact of civil war have seriously limited developments in the sub sector.