Exploration for Orange roughy in the SE Atlantic first started in South Africa prior to 1994, but the focus soon shifted to Namibia when an exploratory fishing license was given to a Namibian fishing company to search for commercial deep-water fish species. The fishery expanded, extending their fishing range into SEAFO CA in 1995. By 2009, a three-year moratorium on Orange roughy was enforced in Namibia and the fishery has not been re-opened yet. There are however some targeted fishing activities as part of the research quota allocated to the vessel that conducts the scientific survey in Namibia. (Note: catches from the Namibian EEZ are included in Table 3 for comparison purposes).

Seven Namibian vessels (Table 1) were involved for the period that the fishery occurred in the SEAFO CA, between 1995 and 2005. These vessels were also involved in the Alfonsino fishery during the same period. The vessels employed the standard New Zealand “Arrow” rough bottom trawl with cut-away lower wings. Sweep and bridle lengths were 100 meters and 50 meters respectively. A “rock hopper” bobbin rig was used. The net had a 5-6-meter headline height when towed at 3- 3.5 knots and had an estimated wingspread of 15 meters. The cod end had a mesh of 110 mm. Each vessel spends on average 12 days at sea.


Table 1. Orange roughy: Fleet information, Division B1.

Flag	ID	Name	Length	GRT	Built	HP	IRCS
Nam	L737	Southern Aquarius	54		01/01/1974	3000	V5SH
Nam	L913	Emanguluko	31	483.00	01/01/1990	1850	V5SD
Nam	L892	Petersen	43	650.00	01/01/1979		V5RG
Nam	L861	Will Watch	69	1587.00	01/01/1972	2116	ZMWW
Nam	L918	Hurinis	37	784.00	01/01/1987	1680	V5SW
Nam	L1159	Bell Ocean II	57	1899.00	01/01/1990	3342	3BLG
Nam	L830	Seaflower	92	3179.75	01/01/1972	4800	V5HO

Orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) is distributed globally (Fig. 1), predominantly in the Southern Hemisphere, but appear to be absent from the northern Indian Ocean and the North Pacific (Tingley and Dunn 2018)). In the SE Atlantic, orange roughy may most probably be regarded as a single stock (management unit), and genetic samples are currently being collected in order to confirm this. In the BCLME region the species occurs within the economic zones of each of the coastal states as well as in the SEAFO CA.

The aggregating behaviour of Orange roughy contributed to its vulnerability to overexploitation globally. Spawning aggregations of Orange roughy have been targeted in Namibia during winter. Outside the spawning seasons catches were found to be lower due to a more dispersed resource. Orange roughy are also extremely slow-growing and estimates of maximum age are in excess of 100 years.

Recruitment to the fishery is poorly understood as juveniles are not found in significant quantities. Adults have been caught in small amounts in both Angolan and South African waters, but not in large spawning aggregations as in Namibia. Orange roughy distribution also extends beyond the economic zones of the BCLME countries with good catches reported for example on the Valdivia Bank on the South Atlantic Ridge as well as on the fringes of the Agulhas Bank and Walvis Ridge in the southern Benguela.

Figure 1. Global distribution of Orange roughy (Branch 2001).

Fishing mainly occurred on Ewing seamount and Valdivia Bank within the SEAFO CA (Fig 2). These operations started in 1995 and continued until 2005, with the exception of 1998 when no fishing took place. The fishing season usually extends from January to December and catches peak in winter months (May to July), which coincides with the spawning season of Orange roughy.

Figure 2. Geographical location of fishing activities in the SEAFO CA.

In the SE Atlantic Orange roughy may most probably be regarded as a single stock (management unit). In the BCLME region that species occurs within the economic zones of each of the coastal states as well as in the SEAFO CA.

For all the fishing grounds the home port is the same as the landing port, with Walvis Bay and Lüderitz the most important ports. All available landing information is presented in Table 2. However, the bulk of Orange roughy catches were recorded within the Namibian EEZ (Table 3). A total of 1270 trawls were made landing about 290 tonnes of Orange roughy.


Table 2. Catches of Orange roughy made by Namibia, Norway, RSA and Research Surveys.

Nation	Namibia		Norway		South Africa		Research Survey
Fishing method	Bottom trawl		Bottom trawl		Bottom trawl		Bottom trawl
Management Area	B1		A1		B1		B1
Year	Retain	Discard	Retain	Discard	Retain	Discard	Retain	TOTAL
1995	40		-					40
1996	8		-					8
1997	5		22		27#**			54
1998	-	-	12					12
1999	<1		-	-				<1
2000	75		0					75
2001	94		-	-				94
2002	9		-	-				9
2003	27		-	-				27
2004	15		-	-				15
2005	18		-	-				18
2006	-	-	-	-				-
2007	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2008	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2009	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2010	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2011	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2012	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2013	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2014	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2015	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2016	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2017	-	-	-	-	-	-		0
2018	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2019	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2020	-	-	-	-	-	-		-
2021	-	-	-	-		-		-
2022	-	-	-	-	-	-	<1	<1
2023*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TOTAL	291	0	34	0	27	0	<1	352

- = No Fishing.

Blank fields = No data available.

* = Provisional (up until 31 August 2022).

** Sum of Catches from 1993 to 1997.

# Values taken from the Japp (1999).


Table 3. Orange roughy landings (tonnes) in SEAFO CA and Namibian EEZ.

Year	SEAFO CA	Namibian EEZ
1994	-	1 872
1995	40	6 288
1996	8	17 381
1997	5	14 729
1998	-	10 040
1999	<1	2 699
2000	75	1 344
2001	94	874
2002	9	1 985
2003	27	1 730
2004	15	1 106
2005	18	297
2006	-	429
2007	-	288
2008	-	6
2009	-	5
2010	-	1
2011	-	1
2012	-	1
2013	-	2
2014	-	2
2015	-	6
2016	-	308
2017	0	153
2018	-	534
2019	-	343
2020	-	3
2021	-	64
2022	-	NA
2023*	-	NA

The annual CPUE (total annual catch divided by number of tows) are shown in Figure 3. Catch per tow was used as a proxy for CPUE estimations due to a lack of duration information. The CPUE was the highest in 1995 and thereafter decreased rapidly to reach the lowest CPUE in 1999. Since then, the CPUE seems to have stabilized at a low level until 2005 after which there are no data.

Figure 3. CPUE of Orange roughy in tonnes per trawl in Division B1 (SEAFO SC Report 2006).