Eastern little tuna

SOUTH AFRICA REGULATES SEA FISHING SPECIES BY SPECIES, WHICH IS NOT HOW MOST COUNTRIES DO IT.

A recreational permit is the entry ticket and not the whole of it. On top of it sits a minimum size and a daily bag limit SET PER FISH, a closed season on a small number of species, and a cumulative daily cap across everything caught — so being inside the limit for each species separately does not put you inside the limit overall.

THERE IS A CAP ON HOOKS on a rod-and-line permit. A spearfishing permit is separate, allows no breathing apparatus beyond a snorkel, and PROHIBITS SPEARFISHING IN AN ESTUARY — a flat ban rather than a limit, and the rule visitors most often do not know.

A LANDED FISH MUST KEEP ITS HEAD AND TAIL so its length can be checked. Nothing caught on a recreational permit may be sold by anyone. And a small list of species may not be caught, landed or possessed at all.

FISHINGHQ DOES NOT PRINT THE FIGURES, and the reason is on this page rather than in a policy document: the department's own guidance says adjustments may be forthcoming given the acknowledged crisis of linefish, the numbers differ by species and by area and by whether you were standing on a beach or sitting in a boat, and a stale figure on a fishing site is worse than no figure at all. Get the current position from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, and get the protected-area position from whichever body manages the stretch of coast you are on.

Fast-growing, early-maturing and very short-lived — aged to about six years. That is even faster than a skipjack, and it is why a fish under this much fishing pressure across the Indo-Pacific is nonetheless assessed as Least Concern.

Spawns in warm coastal water across its range, over an extended season rather than in a defined window, releasing large numbers of pelagic eggs. Like the skipjack it forms no protectable spawning aggregation, and its resilience comes from fecundity and speed of growth rather than from any behaviour a manager can defend.

A fast pursuit predator on small shoaling fish, squid and crustaceans in coastal water, hunting in shoals that push bait to the surface. It works closer inshore than a skipjack, which is what makes it available to smaller boats and to shore-based anglers casting metals from suitable rock marks and piers on the KwaZulu-Natal coast.

Sight, at speed, in warm clear coastal water. Like the other tunas it hunts visually in the upper water column and commits hard to a fast-moving lure.

A warm-water fish following temperature and food along the KwaZulu-Natal coast, with the best fishing in the warmer months and around the annual movements of baitfish. The sardine run and its associated predator activity on the east coast draws these and every other pelagic predator inshore.

A common KwaZulu-Natal coastal gamefish and one of the standard live baits for couta, marlin and larger gamefish. On light tackle it is an excellent sport fish that fights far above its weight. It falls under the general tuna listing at a daily bag limit with no minimum size, and it is one of at least three South African fish routinely called bonito — which is the practical reason its markings are worth learning.

Hot-blooded, fast-spoiling, and often destined for a bait well.

BLEED AND ICE ANYTHING BEING KEPT, immediately.

IF IT IS GOING BACK, GET IT BACK FAST. Tunas must swim to breathe.

IF IT IS GOING INTO A BAIT WELL, get it in with minimum handling — a live bait that has been squeezed and dropped is a dead bait in ten minutes.

Nothing about the fish is venomous; the hazard is trebles and a hard thrashing body on a deck.