Oceans facts and futures: 2018 Ocean Scorecard

The 2018 Ocean Scorecard, published by WWF South Africa, provides an updated assessment of the state of South Africa's ocean economy and global fish stocks. It tracks progress against a 2016 baseline, highlighting critical declines in specific species, shifts in fishery exploitation levels, and progress in marine spatial planning and coastal livelihoods.

• Global fish stock trends between 2016 and 2018 show a decline in sustainability, with a 2% increase in overfished stocks and a 4% decrease in underfished stocks, suggesting more species are being fished to their capacity.
• In South African waters, the percentage of over-exploited species decreased by 4% by 2018, though this is attributed largely to an increase in the number of species undergoing formal stock assessments by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF).
• There is a growing gap in data for South African marine resources; the proportion of species with an unknown or uncertain status has increased to 23% of all extracted species.
• African penguins and West Coast rock lobster populations are declining rapidly. Penguin declines are linked to climate change and food availability, while rock lobster declines are driven by poor fishery management and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
• Both shallow-water and deep-water hake species are showing positive trends, with deep-water hake reaching a maximum sustainable yield.
• Progress has been made in coastal livelihoods and governance, specifically through the first allocations of fishing rights to small-scale fishing communities in the Northern Cape and a positive shift in marine spatial planning legislation.
• South Africa's marine protection remains very low, with less than 0.5% of mainland ocean ecosystems formally protected by area.

APA

Pillay, P., Francis, J., Adams, R., Stassen, M., McGee, S., Nagiah, M., Sigam, S., & Lutchminarayan, K. (2018). Oceans facts and futures: 2018 Ocean Scorecard. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_sa_ocean_scorecard_2018.pdf

Chicago

Pillay, Pavs, Junaid Francis, Robin Adams, Monica Stassen, Stephanie McGee, Melisha Nagiah, Sindisa Sigam, and Kirtanya Lutchminarayan. Oceans facts and futures: 2018 Ocean Scorecard. WWF South Africa, 2018. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_sa_ocean_scorecard_2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{pillay2018oceans, author = {Pillay, Pavs and Francis, Junaid and Adams, Robin and Stassen, Monica and McGee, Stephanie and Nagiah, Melisha and Sigam, Sindisa and Lutchminarayan, Kirtanya}, title = {{Oceans facts and futures: 2018 Ocean Scorecard}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_sa_ocean_scorecard_2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }