Palinurus delagoae

This species has been directly targeted by commercial fisheries. It was taken by a trap fishery in Mozambique, and two separate multi-species trawl fisheries in South Africa and Mozambique (Groeneveld 2000). There is a lack of catch data and biological data for this species, making it difficult to assess the status of the population. In South Africa the fishery which first began in the 1920s, has since shown a significant decline in the landings (Groeneveld and Cockcroft 1997) and so has since diversified to catch other species (Groeneveld and Melville-Smith 1995). In Mozambique the fishery didn't start until the 1980s; landings peaked at 300 tonnes then declined sharply until it was no longer economically viable to continue the fishery. It was then abandoned in 2000 (Groeneveld et al. 2005).

The FAO reports landings data for this species, however there is no account for fishing effort. Groeneveld (2000) reports catch per unit effort (CPUE) for the trawl fishery in South Africa for the period 1993 to 1997: 1993 - 2.71 kg/h^-1; 1994 - 1.60 kg/h^-1; 1995 - 1.30 kg/h^-1; 1996 - 1.02 kg/h^-1; 1997 - 1.06 kg/h^-1. Landings and CPUE data for the trap fishery in South Africa is as follows: 1994 - 89 tonnes/ 0.606 kg/trap; 1995 - 50 tonnes/ 0.634 kg/trap; 1996 - 30.9 tonnes/ 0.297 kg/trap; 1997 - 7.4 tonnes/ 0.159 kg/trap. There is an apparent significant decline in catch between 1993 and 1994, however without a greater time series, it is difficult to interpret this as a long term trend. Results from this study also indicate that a maximum sustainable yield of 60 tonnes a year for both the trap and trawl fishery would have been realistic; landings in 1994 and 1995 exceeded this limit which may account for the apparent decline in catch during this period.