Snoek

For many snoek is a delicacy.  Something typically of the Cape.  Like Table Mountain and Robben Island.  But for the people on the West Coast snoek is their lifeblood. Essential business. And with lobster being on the downhill path, snoek offer a lot of people a living. But snoek only runs certain times of the year…

April/May in Port Nolloth, May/June in Lambert's Bay and June to August from St. Helena Bay to Cape Peninsula.  And when those silver bodies show up at your doorstep, you better be ready! You better catch enough out of the bounty, so that you can have enough money to keep you when it is all over again. At those times you will see anything able to float on the water, it will be a ant's nest of activity - from catching to gutting, from drying to trading...from sunrise to sunset. Sometimes you will get lucky and your catch will be sold before you are back in the harbour. Other times you will only get in late and all the mongers have come and gone, you'll just have to be satisfied with what you get. Anything from R40.00 to as little as R13.00 per snoek. On the quay cash is king.  At harbours between St. Helena Bay and Gans Bay, snoek are frequently auctioned to fishmongers and quayside hawkers.  The latter then sell the snoek to the public along urban roadsides.  The economic system in the catching and selling of snoek - from the fisherman to the gutting stations or the mongers, was set in place over generations and decades of trading and fishing. It has become part of towns' histories and cultures. A culture where most of the participants live a life maybe bordering the bread line.

In the 1600s snoek were recorded by Van Riebeeck as having been caught in Saldanha Bay, and the Dutch colonists named the species “zeesnoek” (sea-snoek), probably because of its similarity to the freshwater pike or snoek of the canals and meres of Holland.  The snoek is a medium-sized fish that reaches a maximum length of 2m, corresponding to a mass of 9kg.  It is a shoaling predator with strong jaws and large, sharp teeth. 

Spawning occurs during winter and spring along the edge of the shelf (15-400m in depth) of the western Agulhas Bank and the west coast as far north as Hondeklip Bay.  The eggs and larvae are transported by currents to the main nursery ground north of Cape Columbine, or to a secondary nursery near Hermanus, to the east of Danger Point.  These shallow waters (<150m in depth) are extremely productive, providing a ready source of food for the developing young.  For the first few days after the eggs hatch – about two days after fertilisation – the larvae feed on phytoplancton, but then prey largely on the larvae of other fish species.  In South African waters the adult prey mainly on sardine, anchovy and mantis shrimps.  Shoals of juvenile sardine and anchovies migrate south through St Helena Bay to arrive in waters east of Cape Point in winter and spring, and they are followed throughout by snoek.  Snoek are to believed to eat more anchovy off the Western Cape than any other predator – up to 300 000 tons per year, almost half the loss of anchovy to predators other than man.

When a large shoal of snoek is spotted, everyone goes wild. You have to know your story and man up - bait the hook, cast, catch and repeat!  Bait can be anything from pilchard to a naked hook.  Arms and hands work like windmills and tire easily, but there is no chance for rest, even if the fishing line cuts through the plasters on your fingers...  And when a bokwa (local slang for a really big snoek) bites, you have to be more than ready. No time for rest, your line will get entangled with the others on the boat and this will cause total and absolute chaos.

Because snoek are slick, they are caught securely under the arms of the fisherman as soon as it is on board. The thumb is pressed in one eye and the other fingers around the throat. The hook is then removed and cast back into the ocean.The snoek would then be clubbed to death, the old fishermen believed a snoek will become soggy if it is not clubbed to death. These days a snoek is killed by breaking its neck by pushing the head back till it snaps.

Snoek`s flesh has a high content of oil, but is very tasty when eaten fresh, smoked or salted and dried, and it may be frozen.  In the 1820`s snoek were a staple food of the poor of Cape Town, and dried and salted they were also sold on farms.  By 1830 some 40 boats and 200 men were exclusively  engaged in fishing of the Western Cape, and salted snoek were being exported, especially to Mauritius.  In the early 1900`s the establishment of rail links permitted snoek to be marketed inland, and Cape Town became so renowned that inhabitants of the Eastern Cape referred to the city as “Snoekopolis”.  In the 1920`s several primitive fishing communities eked out an existence along the West Coast, the fisherman alternating between catching snoek, rock lobster and other species such as hottentot  and off-season employment on farms.

By 1889 the Cape fleet consisted of 374 boats and more than 2200 people, and the annual hand-line catch was between 3000 and 4500 tons.  In 2012 the annual hand-line catch was about 6800 tons. The most popular snoek catching areas along the West Coast today are Lambert's Bay, Elands Bay, St Helena Bay and the areas from Vondeling Island to Dassen Island.  There are currently about 3000 boats in the commercial hand-line sector and more than 4000 boats and about 12 800 anglers participate in the recreational line-boat sector, which is subject to a bag limit of 10 snoek per person per day. 

No wonder snoek is so popular...

As far as economical and versatile protein rich dishes are concerned, very few foodstuffs can compete with a West Coast snoek.  This fish species can be prepared in so many ways that it can become a staple diet without being boring.