CASTING THE FIRST LINE
In 1964, Saldanha Bay, a small fishing village on South Africa’s West Coast caught the attention of a young, Spanish-owned fishing company, Pescanova.
Pescanova was born to search for an answer to one question; Is it possible to catch and transport fish from distant locations without being damaged or spoiled during the long months of travel? And Saldanha Bay was where they believed they’d find it. Situated ideally close to the cold Benguela current – a highly-productive fishing ecosystem that boomed onto the scene for its constant supply of fish to be canned or used for supplements for those fighting or affected by WWII. Pescanova joined forces with local fishing bodies and established Sea Harvest. One year later, we opened our doorsTRAWLING THE INDUSTRY
Our principal business is deep sea trawling, primarily for the two Cape Hake species, the processing of its catch into frozen and chilled seafood products, and the marketing of its production both locally and internationally.
Thanks to the technological expertise of Pescanova, Sea Harvest owned South Africa’s biggest fully-automatic refrigeration installation within our first year of starting. From our very conception, Sea Harvest’s production facilities incorporated state-of-the-art processing techniques and equipment.A SWELL OF EMPOWERMENT
In 2008, Sea Harvest was purchased by a South African consortium led by the Cape-based empowerment company, Brimstone Investments and Kagiso.Our empowerment shareholding jumped to 77%, making us the biggest empowerment company in the South African fish industry.
But, sticking to our small fishing village roots, Sea Harvest also grew its local market share. Despite our high empowerment shareholding, our share of the local market was only 28%. The next five years we spent educating South Africans, letting them know that, every day, we were bringing the unprecedented quality, taste and nutritious value of our products ‘from our Saldanha Bay home to yours.our saldanha bay home
Today, we own and operate a fleet of 42 vessels which include single and twin fresh fish trawlers, factory freezer trawlers, and access to in-shore trawlers which catch and process Cape Hake, most famously, and other species. But, we’ve never forgotten about our home waters of Saldanha Bay.
We’re the single largest employer in Saldanha Bay and the West Coast. In the greater west coast area over 15% of all household income is derived from the company. When the town of Saldanha itself is considered, this figure jumps to nearly 30%. Countless socio-economic reports have labelled Sea Harvest ‘a national asset’. Our story is one about fish wild-caught in the icy depths of the south east Atlantic Ocean that now contributes over half the income generated from the country’s commercial fisheries. This is all thanks to local communities and fishermen who had a dream. Sea Harvest is just the vessel and we’re proud of that.FISHING FOR THE FUTURE
At Sea Harvest we pride ourselves on supporting an ecosystem approach to fisheries in our wild-capture operations. We do this to protect and conserve the environment we have dedicated our lives to but also to strengthen the company’s long-term sustainability and trajectory.
We are nothing without fish and so we have chartered the following routes:
- We believe and use the science-based management of all the marine resources we harvest making our fish stocks sustainable for future generations.
- The Sea Harvest Corporation realised the same goes for the company ethos. We got the likes of WWF-SA, Bird Life South Africa, and other industry players all on board to form The Responsible Fishing Alliance, a body that promotes and monitors sustainable fishing practices.
- Every year, our commitment to Sustainability swells with new projects across all sectors that contribute to protecting our environment. It’s not just about business but community participation.
We want to be able to comfort future generations with the promise that there really are lots of fish in the sea.
