For more than 34 years the Endangered Wildlife Trust has remained committed to conserving biodiversity in southern Africa.  One of our current focus areas is on marine and coastal ecosystems.  It is becoming increasingly clear that our oceans and coasts are in trouble, and that humankind is the primary cause of this.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust has launched the Ocean Futures Angling Programme, to address some of these impacts by raising the awareness of coastal users, as well as recreational and sport anglers. The programme aims to contribute to keeping our oceans and coasts healthy by appealing to anglers to adopt a responsible approach to the use of our marine and coastal resources.  The Ocean Futures Angling Programme is an attempt to build on the conservation ethic existing among the angling community in South Africa and to minimize the impacts associated with this leisure activity.

The objectives of the programme are to:

• Raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy marine and coastal environments.
• Harness and strengthen the conservation ethic of recreational anglers utilizing South African marine and coastal waters
• Identify and promote conservation best practice recreational angling activities

Information on the recreational angling sector is necessary to identify key opportunities for more sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. Information on opportunities for threat mitigation is needed in addition to the need to foster relationships among regulators, conservationists and the angling sector and to strengthen management of marine living resources. Recreational fishing is of particular concern in sensitive coastal areas (i.e. estuaries) where effort has increased due to new regulations restricting vehicular access to beaches. To this end, the following study has been initiated:

• Recreational Angler Survey

The aim of the survey is to assess the existing levels of conservation ethic among anglers and to identify ways to harness the valuable input on conservation best practices from the angling community. The survey has been structured to gather information on key issues around management of marine resources that are targeted by anglers and to develop mitigation measures for reducing both impacts from recreational angling on the marine environment as well as the conflict between the industry and government.