THE FISHERY FOR, AND GENERAL BIOLOGY OF, THE ST-JOSEPH CALLORHINCHUS-CAPENSIS (DUMERIL) OFF THE SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH-AFRICA

St Joseph Callorhinchus capensis are caught by a directed gillnet fish ery off the coast of South Africa's Western Cape and also incidentally by trawl in shallow water on both South and West coasts. The fishery only became established in the early 1980s and landings have subsequen tly stabilized at approximately 800 tons per year, almost one-third of which is a by-catch of trawling operations. The gillnet fishery is ce ntred in St Helena Bay and takes very little by-catch. Both trawl and gillnet operations take place in nursery areas of C. capensis and some species of true shark. C. capensis occurs widely off the southern Afr ican coast, from 1 to 366 m deep, but large numbers are only caught in shore (<50 m), the only area where immature fish are found. The fork l ength at 50% sexual maturity is 435 mm in males (3,3 years) and 496 mm in females (4,2 years). Mature fish have an annual onshore/offshore m igration, most mature fish aggregating inshore in summer to breed and lay eggs. They then disperse to deep water where unlaid eggs are resor bed and energy reserves accumulated. The largest number of viable eggs recorded was 22. C. capensis primarily live over soft substrata and t heir diet consists principally of invertebrates associated with such s ubstrata. The relatively fast growth, early sexual maturity and reason ably high fecundity of the species make it a safer fisheries target th an most other chondrichthyans.