Jasus lalandii 'walkouts' or mass strandings in South Africa during the 1990s: an overview

Faunal mass mortalities are a sporadic, but not uncommon, feature of the West and South coasts of South Africa. Five mass mortalities of West Coast rock lobster Jasus lalandii, including three of the most severe ever recorded in South Africa, occurred in the 1990s and resulted in the stranding of about 2263 tonnes of lobster. The bulk (97%) of the loss occurred in the last three years of the decade. The five events occurred within an 80 km stretch of coastline that straddled two fishing zones and resulted from hypoxic conditions associated with high-biomass dinoflagellate blooms. In each case, the quantity of lobsters stranded was directly related to the extent or duration of low-oxygen conditions. Small females constituted the bulk of the lobster stranded in most events. The lobster fisheries in the affected fishing zones suffered severe impacts. Recovery in one zone appears to be extremely slow, whereas the other zone is more resilient. Not only would a continuation of the trend of increasing frequency and severity of lobster strandings devastate the rock-lobster fishing industry and the employment prospects of small fishing communities, but it could also seriously affect the ecology of the region.