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The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says the Marine Stewardship Council's annual surveillance report for South African trawl-caught hake has confirmed that the fishery is well managed.
It also continues to perform in line with the world's most rigorous environmental certification requirements.
Spokesperson, Greta Apelgren-Narkedien says it was the first hake fishery in the world to be certified against the MSC's Environmental Standard for Sustainable Fishing.
"We have a huge export contract that is worth about R3b, we also have a 5 year certification to be able to export our hake to Australia and a number of different countries. Our hake is fortunately not on the orange or red alert in other words it is not being over harvested. These fishing industry companies understand how important conservation is and that is part of what international auditors look for" she said.
