NAMIBIA'S mid-water horse mackerel (Trachurus capensis) fishery has grown in 12 years to replace pilchards as the fishing industry's second most important catch.

Horse mackerel hauls, which usually drop during the southern hemisphere winter, were good for most of the 2002/2003 season, says Jan Arnold, managing director of Namsov, the largest quota holder.

A weak Namibian dollar also contributed to improved profits for horse mackerel producers in 2002, although this trend has largely been reversed owing to a sustained strengthening of the currency.

According to Jan Arnold, average daily catches over the winter were about 80 tons per vessel, as opposed to previous years when 50 tons a days was average. However, he says that the dominance of juveniles less than 16cm concerns the industry.

"There were lots of small fish and a lot of companies were packing fish of 14cm, which the market didn't like, " says Jan Arnold.

The majority of Namibia's horse mackerel catch is supplied to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Angola are important markets, while significant volumes are also sold to Mozambique and South Africa.

Fish is frozen in 10 and 20kg. blocks for transport by reefer ships to Gulf of Guinea countries, or by truck to South Africa and Mozambique.

Fisheries scientists have not recorded good horse mackerel recruitment over the past year and the industry is looking forward to learning the results of the latest horse mackerel survey which began early in February, says Jan Arnold.

There are two distinct groups of quota holders - those owning largely Russian-built mid-water trawlers and those who charter foreign vessels.

The former group, comprising Namsov and Erongo Sea Products and affiliated quota holders, together own seven mid-water trawlers and hold about two-thirds of the horse mackerel TAC of 350 000 tons.

Jan Arnold explains that the TAC for horse mackerel dropped from 450,000 tons to 350,000 tons in 2002 and, due to the proportional reduction of quota between quota holders, Namsov was particularly hard hit.

However, he says that by restricting fishmeal production and stretching the quota over the season, Namsov managed to extract the highest value from its quota.

Jan Arnold predicts "a year of challenge trying to get the most out of a smaller TAC" lies ahead in the 2003/04 season.

In 2002 Namsov started upgrading its five Russianbuilt trawlers. The 104 metre and 4407GRT Namibian Star - built in the Ukraine in 1988 - was the first to be worked on in Walvis Bay at a cost of N$11 million ($1.3million).

Refrigeration capacity was increased by 30 tons a day, while aging Russian-built auxiliary engines were replaced with three Cummins 400 kW models.

Namibian Star's stocker pond was increased in size and a new chilling system installed to produce higher quality product.

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Horse mackerel