The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a list of 17 goals, whose collective implementation aim to eradicate poverty, while balancing economic and social development, as well as environmental protection and sustainable resource use (Lee et al., 2020). The concept of the ‘Blue Economy’ (or ‘Oceans Economy’), whose origin is linked with the SDGs (particularly SDG 14: Life below water) has gained significant traction over the past decade, and aims to improve human well-being and social equity through the sustainable use of aquatic resources for economic growth while maintaining ecosystem health (Smith-Godfrey, 2016; Wenhai et al., 2019). Successful applications of this concept have included the assessment of harmful algal blooms around aquaculture hubs in European Atlantic shelf seas, conducting ship-based oil spill risk assessments in Atlantic Basin coasts, and the ecological restoration of wetlands in China (Wenhai et al., 2019).

Despite these success stories, African examples are notably missing. Africa is surrounded by three oceans, and represents the largest latitudinal coverage of any continent resulting in a richly biodiverse marine fauna (Decker et al., 2003) with large fisheries resources (Belhabib et al., 2016; Muringai et al., 2021). However, many African countries are amongst the most impoverished, with abject poverty, high unemployment rates, and high levels of food insecurity being an every-day concern (Belhabib et al., 2015; Battersby and Watson, 2018). Consequently, many marine species are heavily targeted by African fisheries, spanning the recreational, commercial, and small-scale/informal sector. Together, these sectors contribute approximately US$ 24 billion annually, constituting 1.26% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (Chan et al., 2019). Unfortunately, stocks are largely being harvested unsustainably, resulting in declining resources, which further negatively impacts food security (Belhabib et al., 2015; Temple et al., 2018; Muringai et al., 2021). For example, all West African fishing grounds are considered fully or over-exploited, with an estimated 6.7 million people relying on fishing activities for both food and livelihoods (Belhabib et al., 2015). Sustainably managed fisheries are essential for the development of Africa through alleviating poverty and promoting socio-economic growth (Chan et al., 2019). However, promoting growth and development is often at heads with conservation efforts, particularly when it comes to the protection needs of threatened and vulnerable species (Voyer et al., 2018). Many Blue Economy initiatives across the African continent also place significant emphasis on economic gains, with little to no regard to both environmental sustainability and conservation, and social inclusion (Okafor-Yarwood et al., 2020).

On the journey towards the sustainable development and use of aquatic resources, Africa’s Blue Economy Strategy was developed in 2018, with the aim of implementing this plan between 2021 and 2025 (Failler et al., 2020). This strategy built on global policies and initiatives to which African countries were already committed, including the 2014 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIMS) and the SDGs, with emphasis being placed on SDG 14: Life below water (Failler et al., 2020). Five overarching themes were identified as being critical to the growth of the Blue Economy in Africa, all of which are similar to the implementation of the Blue Economy across the globe. These themes encompass renewable innovative marine energy industries; maritime transport, safety and enforcement; improved policy and governance; sustainable fishing, aquaculture and conservation; and marine and coastal tourism (Failler et al., 2020). Linked to the sustainable use and development goals of the African Blue Economy Strategy is the concept of ‘ocean stewardship’. The term stewardship broadly encompasses the principles and actions that aim to improve sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems, that are grounded on values of voluntary altruism and long-term benefits (Barendse et al., 2016). Peçanha Enqvist et al. (2018) highlights that there are multiple meanings and frameworks of stewardship as it is used across disciplines, but argues that it can be considered as a conceptual ‘boundary object’ encompassing three components: care, knowledge and agency.

The knowledge dimension of stewardship specifically refers to the basic information and understanding about a species, habitat, or other resource that is being stewarded (Berkes et al., 2008; Peçanha Enqvist et al., 2018). While such knowledge can come from a variety of different knowledge systems, the conventional scientific method is highly relevant (Hansen, 2014; Peçanha Enqvist et al., 2018). In the context of stewardship as it applies to the ocean, knowledge generation around both marine species and habitats is vital, as these are both essential components that need to be managed sustainably under the umbrella of the African Blue Economy Strategy. Spatial management tools, such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), can be considered as good management practices in an African context. They provide ecological benefits by protecting both species and habitat (Roberts et al., 2005; Lester et al., 2009; Bennett and Dearden, 2014; Kirkman et al., 2021), social benefits such as rebuilding depleted fish stocks and supporting livelihoods, and providing recreation/tourism opportunities (Roberts et al., 2005; Lopes et al., 2015; Kirkman et al., 2021) all of which encompass the social-ecological aspects of ocean stewardship. However, in order for these benefits to be realised, spatial management tools need to be implemented effectively. For example, if MPAs are to be effective in protecting vulnerable species, information on animal movement is essential (Kerwath et al., 2007; Afonso et al., 2009; Mann et al., 2016). More specifically, knowing where and when an animal moves provides critical insights into ecologically and/or biologically significant areas (Kock et al., 2018).

Acoustic telemetry is a method used to study aquatic animal spatial ecology that has gained significant popularity over recent decades, and is being used to investigate and answer diverse questions for a multitude of animal groups including teleosts, elasmobranchs, marine mammals, reptiles and invertebrates (Hussey et al., 2015). This method involves attaching an acoustic transmitter to an aquatic animal which transmits uniquely coded acoustic signals that are detected, recorded and stored by acoustic receivers. Acoustic telemetry has allowed for the successful elucidation of various aspects of animal movement including residency and site affinity, home range size, seasonal migratory behaviours, and habitat connectivity (Heupel et al., 2005; Hussey et al., 2015; Cowley et al., 2017). More specifically, the success and popularity of passive acoustic telemetry, where acoustic receivers are stationed at fixed locations, has led to the development of several large-scale collaborative networks of acoustic receivers distributed across the globe. These include Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Tracking Facility (Steckenreuter et al., 2017; Hoenner et al., 2018; Huveneers et al., 2021), the European Tracking Network (Abecasis et al., 2018; Reubens et al., 2019), the US’s FACT (Young et al., 2020) and Atlantic Cooperative Tracking networks (Block et al., 2016), and South Africa’s Acoustic Tracking Array Platform ATAP (Cowley et al., 2017). These large-scale networks are collecting movement data on a multitude of aquatic species, and are now in a position to incorporate these data into improved fisheries management (Nguyen et al., 2018; Lowerre-Barbieri et al., 2019).

The ATAP is the only network of its kind on the African continent. It represents a significant example of the successful implementation of ocean stewardship principles that can directly contribute towards sustainable resource management. Cowley et al. (2017) reflected on the first five years of the ATAP (2011 – 2016). This article aims to provide a decadal overview of the ATAP highlighting it as a successful ocean stewardship example for Africa, and in particular (i) detailing how the data collected are generating important ecological and biological knowledge, (ii) highlighting how this can be utilised in management and conservation tools through the provision of two case studies, (iii) discussing how the data-sharing arrangements benefit multiple stakeholders, and (iv) briefly touching on how stakeholder engagement and community outreach are also important aspects being practised by the ATAP.

One of the key management and conservation goals of the ATAP put forward by Cowley et al. (2017) was the provision of data to assist in the planning of conservation/management zones, particularly MPAs. Other global studies have highlighted how acoustic telemetry data can be used to assist in the planning of MPAs and to provide valuable insights on relative MPA use by both teleosts (Alós et al., 2011; La Mesa et al., 2012; Abecasis et al., 2014; Aspillaga et al., 2016; Novak et al., 2020) and chondrichthyans (Lea et al., 2016; Jacoby et al., 2020; Elston et al., 2021; van Zinnicq Bergmann et al., 2022). Despite significant investment in telemetry science, the documentation and assessment of the impact of telemetry research is still lacking (McGowan et al., 2016). However, in South Africa, the intention of using movement data collected by the ATAP to assist with marine spatial planning efforts, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the country’s existing MPAs to protect vulnerable and endemic species, is being realised.

Through the years the ATAP has supported, and continues to support, a number of acoustic telemetry projects of conservation concern, both in terms of the species being monitored and the placement of effort within several southern African MPAs. Firstly, almost two-thirds of all individuals tagged and monitored by the ATAP over the past decade were of conservation concern as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categories, one of the most objective and authoritative systems available to assess the extinction risk of a species (Mace et al., 2008). However, it is recognised that these category designations may not necessarily consider the use-related data associated with each species. Indeed, Marsh et al. (2021) found that 98.5% of all chondrichthyans, and 82.1% of all teleosts, irrespective of conservation status, are used as a biological resource, creating a conflict between resource use for economic gain and food security, and conservation measures. Specifically, 62.4% (n = 985) of tagged individuals detected within the ATAP were threatened with extinction, being classed as Critically Endangered (n = 178), Endangered (n = 328), or Vulnerable (n = 479), while 37.6% (n = 594) of tagged individuals were classed as Near Threatened (n = 118), or Least Concern (n = 476). Furthermore, approximately one-third of all individuals have been tagged within South African MPAs and, at time of writing, approximately 40% (n = 103) of the 251 active receivers were situated within MPAs ( Figure 6 ). These partner projects within MPAs aim to (i) evaluate the efficacy of the De Hoop Nature Reserve in protecting endemic and threatened shark species, including endemic catsharks (Albano et al., 2021); (ii) investigate the movements of giant kingfish Caranx ignobilis in the Mtentu Estuary within the Pondoland MPA and their connectivity with surrounding areas (Dixon, 2022), including their known spawning aggregation site in southern Mozambique (Daly et al., 2019); (iii) investigate the connectivity between the Pondoland and St Lucia MPAs using catface rockcod Epinephelus andersoni as the focal species; (iv) investigate the movements of green jobfish Aprion virescens and potato bass Epinephelus tukula in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (an MPA); (v) assess the influence of fishing pressure on the behaviour and activity of an endemic sparid red Roman Chrysoblephus laticeps tagged in the Tsitsikamma National Park MPA; and (vi) understand how the resident sparid white steenbras responds to oceanographic features within the Greater Addo Elephant National Park MPA ( Figure 6 ). Together, these projects highlight the conservation potential that the ATAP has to inform whether vulnerable and endemic species are being effectively protected by the current MPA zonation in South Africa. Furthermore, telemetry data collected by the ATAP is also currently being used to advise spatial management plans for both chondrichthyans and teleosts. These are presented as two case studies below.

There is great potential for acoustic telemetry to track animals over vast distances, and answer complex questions about animal movement behaviour across large spatial scales. However, this can only be effectively achieved with sufficient established infrastructure and the cooperation of scientists willing to share resources and data (Young et al., 2020; Reubens et al., 2021). Such efforts have been realised in large-scale collaborative telemetry networks around the world, where the necessary infrastructure includes both compatible hardware (i.e the acoustic telemetry receivers allowing transmitters to operate without hindrance within the network) (Harcourt et al., 2019) and centralised databases, as telemetry data are moving into the realm of ‘big data’ and there needs to be sufficient capacity to store, manage, access and share the large amounts of data generated (Nguyen et al., 2017). Often these collaborative networks are made up of nation-wide receivers provided through the network facilitator, as well as smaller local arrays of receivers that are provided by interested research partners (for e.g. non-profit organisations NPOs, university researchers and research institutes). The benefits of these collaborative networks are numerous, and at minimum include the opportunity for researchers to expand the spatial extent over which they can detect their tagged animals, as well as increasing opportunities for collaboration and access to additional tools and community knowledge (Young et al., 2020).

There have been published examples detailing how these collaborative receiver networks have provided distinct benefits to partners. For example, in the Australian IMOS network of receivers, bronze whaler Carcharhinus brachyurus and dusky C. obscurus sharks were detected significantly more often when including data recorded by nation-wide (IMOS) receivers compared to local array (non-IMOS) receivers, which provided important insights into inter-state movements that would have otherwise been under-represented or undetected (Huveneers et al., 2021). Huisman et al. (2016) observed European silver eel Anguilla anguilla tagged in catchments from three different European countries moving to the Dutch-Belgian coastal zone, which would have remained undetected if receivers were not present in the coastal zone of each country and data had not been shared. Through the collaborative efforts of several acoustic telemetry networks deployed in the US (including iTAG, FACT and ACT networks), stretching from North Carolina to Florida (approximately 2000 km), Griffin et al. (2018) were able to characterise the spatial ecology of Atlantic tarpon Megalops atlanticus, including migratory connectivity. Using the same US networks, DeGroot et al. (2021) was able to characterise intra-specific variability in migration patterns of white-spotted eagle rays Aetobatus narinari, which has important implications for population structuring and management efforts.

When considering South Africa’s current ATAP network, it comprises receivers belonging to multiple institutions, NPOs and individual researchers in addition to the receivers provided through the platform itself ( Table 2 ). Prior to the formalisation of the ATAP in 2011, three smaller local acoustic receiver arrays were already operational; namely in False Bay, Gansbaai and Algoa Bay. In partnering with Canada’s OTN, which saw a large investment in telemetry infrastructure in the country, as well a substantial capital equipment grant from South Africa’s National Research Foundation, a nationwide backbone of receivers could then be deployed by the platform. Since then, several other smaller local receiver arrays were established by partners to fill in the gaps between ATAP receivers ( Figure 6 ). Over the past decade, at least 216 partner receivers have been deployed along the South African coastline and of those, 61.1% (n = 132) remain active at the time of writing.

The benefits of this equipment and data sharing are two-fold: they increase the spatial coverage of the overall ATAP network providing a benefit to the platform and in return, the local receiver owners/researchers have access to the telemetry data collected on all of the receivers within the network (for their tagged animals) as opposed to only data collected by their respective receivers. Empirically, and as seen in other similar networks, this collaboration and data sharing within the ATAP network has resulted in significant increases in the data richness collected at larger spatial scales. Inherently, the vast majority of local partner receiver arrays are small-scale in nature, with only half of localised arrays having receivers covering >100 km of coastline (maximum straight-line distance), while only 20% of partner arrays had receivers covering >250 km of the coastline ( Table 2 ). These spatial scales over which local receiver arrays were deployed were compared to the mean and maximum distances that all tagged species travelled in coastal waters during the 10 years of ATAP’s detection collection (this excluded estuarine detections). This revealed that a significant number of animals often travelled further distances from their tagging locations. Specifically, 10.8% (n = 781 345) of all detections, from 34 of the 48 tagged species, occurred further than 100 km from an individual’s tagging location and 5.7% (n = 412 647) of all detections, spanning 29 of the 48 tagged species, occurred further than 250 km from an individual’s tagging location. Additionally, for 76% of local receiver arrays, the focal species that receiver owners concentrated tagging effort on displayed greater average distances travelled (from their tagging locations) compared to the spatial extent of their local array ( Table 2 ). Finally, while only one localised array extended further than 500 km ( Table 2 ), 18 species travelled further than 500 km ( Figure 7 ). These insights highlight the extra data that the ATAP, a large collaborative network of receivers, has collected when compared to small localised arrays of receivers. It is important to understand the large-scale, longshore movements that animals make to gain a better understanding of migratory behaviours, habitat connectivity, and to what extent spatial protection measures may be suitable for them.

Acoustic telemetry results can potentially impact society, particularly in relation to changes in existing management strategies e.g. declaration of MPAs or EPAs in popular fishing areas, or changes to existing traditional management measures, such as a reduction in both size and bag limits (Nguyen et al., 2019). Additionally, a significant portion of receivers in the greater network, along with the transmitters with which animals have been tagged, have been funded by government capital equipment grants, which is ultimately public money. As such, open and transparent communication with the public is crucial not only for buy-in on new or amended management interventions, but also for the public to build an active interest in the resources on which people rely for livelihoods and/or enjoyment and sport. Indeed, Cooke et al. (2016) highlighted several case studies where conservation of targeted species was a success due to active engagement by the angling community, including catch-and-release angling for Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus as an alternative revenue stream for displaced commercial fishers (Stokesbury et al., 2011), and increased revenue of sharks through tourism initiatives as opposed to consumptive use, including non-harvest angling (Gallagher et al., 2012).

The ATAP has always made an attempt to actively engage with the public using numerous avenues, which include participation in science festivals (e.g. SciFest - Africa’s largest school science festival), public presentations at angling clubs, and informal lectures to schools or universities, and with the scientific community via local and international conference presentations and platform user workshops. Given the enormous developments in online social media platforms over the past decade (Kumar and Nanda, 2019), and the subsequent exponential uptake of these platforms by the public, and the increasingly important role these platforms play in research and education (Zimba and Gasparyan, 2021), the next logical step was to start engaging in the virtual realm. As such, the ATAP now manages accounts on three social media platforms including Facebook (ATAP - Tracking fish movements), Twitter (@ATAP_ZA) and Instagram (@atap_za), and through regular efforts in content creation, there has been a steady increase in the number of followers per platform, ranging from >500 followers on Instagram, to almost 2,000 followers on Facebook.

Capacity building and skills development are important for enriching knowledge, expertise, and skill (Findlay and Bohler-Muller, 2018). However, many developing countries, including South Africa, face challenges associated with basic scientific capacity (Hassan, 2007; Miloslavich et al., 2019). Over the past five years, the ATAP has aimed to develop human capacity by running Summer Schools – a 4-day fieldtrip targeting undergraduate students hoping to pursue postgraduate degrees in the aquatic sciences. The emphasis of these Summer Schools is on training students from historically disadvantaged institutions – a user group severely under-represented in the biological science field, and involving female researchers, addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 4: Quality education and 5: Gender equality. Although the COVID-19 global pandemic has hampered the running of this school in recent times, the first three schools were successful, with uptake of postgraduate projects across all years.

The current ATAP network has an unmistakeable lack of listening power along the west coast of the country ( Figure 1 ), with the closest station to the South African-Namibian border in the Berg Estuary. While good working terms exist between South African and Mozambican researchers, the lack of reliable deployment collaborators, as well as a general lack of research capacity, has seen no receivers being deployed further north, or into southern Namibia. However, the ATAP and the Namibian Rays and Sharks (NaRaS) Project have started a tentative collaboration, where the ATAP (at this stage) is acting in an advisory position, with both parties already committing to data sharing. NaRaS will, at a later stage, deploy their own transmitters on species which occur in both countries, including white sharks, sevengill sharks, spotted gully sharks, bronze whaler sharks and blue stingrays. The transmitters of species tagged in False Bay whose populations occupy both South African and Namibian waters are beginning to, or have expired (e.g. white sharks and sevengill sharks). However, other important mesopredators, including bronze whaler sharks, which have been acoustically tagged, are genetically indistinct between the two countries (Benavides et al., 2011), and have been recorded making transboundary movements, will still be monitored for approximately four years. This collaboration will see not only an increase in listening power along the west coast, but will also increase our understanding of the transboundary connectivity of numerous chondrichthyan and teleost species.

Climate change is anticipated to create a more volatile ocean, with, amongst other things, increases in marine heat waves (Frölicher and Laufkötter, 2018), a relative increase in ocean acidification (Kapsenberg and Cyronak, 2019), and an increase in ocean temperature, which alone is recognised as one of the biggest threats to marine ecosystems (Freer et al., 2018). Therefore, understanding how certain environmental variables may change is crucial to understanding how aquatic animals may, in turn, respond. Water temperature is arguably the most important abiotic variable influencing the movements of aquatic ecotherms such as fish (Little et al., 2020). In species that remain resident, sudden and extreme fluctuations in temperature can have devastating effects, resulting in fish kills (Durham et al., 2006; Stauffer et al., 2012). In mobile species, there is more room for adaption, where an animal can use movement as a coping mechanism to extreme fluctuations (Heupel and Simpfendorfer, 2008). Due to the close relationship between water temperature and fish movement, the importance of recording this abiotic variable is becoming increasingly evident. The ATAP has had temperature loggers (U22-001, Onset^®, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA) in place at selected sites since its formalisation in 2011. As such, this network of temperature data, most of which has been recorded at a depth of 30 m, is becoming an invaluable source of information, which can be linked to a suite of studies, including movement assessments in relation to temperature, and ocean modelling. Moving forwards, the ATAP aims to maintain this nationwide temperature network, and is also hoping to expand recording power to a depth of 100 m (with temperature loggers being moored using acoustic receivers, model VR2AR, Innovasea), which will not only increase our understanding of the temperature of these more offshore regions, but will also provide new insights into the relative importance of offshore regions to inshore coastal species.

Despite some of Africa’s current failures to sustainably develop and use its rich resources, it is a place of hope and potential. The core values of ocean stewardship, knowledge generation around resources and the altruistic care of those resources for long-term benefit, are vital to see the potential of Africa’s Blue Economy realised. The ATAP represents a highly successful example of ocean stewardship in Africa. First and foremost, it is a platform for knowledge generation. The receivers of the ATAP situated in focal bays (eg, False Bay, Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay) allow researchers to gain insights into fine-scale habitat use and residency behaviours of tagged animals, while the linking receivers along the coastline allow for the determination of habitat connectivity, longshore movements, and migration patterns. Not only is this ecological knowledge valuable in and of itself, but it has direct and applied management and conservation benefits and, as outlined in the case studies, the information collected through the ATAP is currently being used in management planning of marine resources in South Africa. Furthermore, the ATAP has successful benefit-sharing arrangements in place with multiple NPOs, research institutions and universities in South Africa who provide additional acoustic receivers at certain locations along the coastline. The ATAP benefits from further receivers being in the water, while the partners benefit from having data collected on a much larger scale. These arrangements are built on principles of voluntary data-sharing and long-term benefits, both of which are core-values of ocean stewardship (Barendse et al., 2016; Peçanha Enqvist et al., 2018). Finally, the ATAP is dedicated to education, outreach and awareness through various platforms, to ensure the platform is as transparent and impactful as possible. Initiatives built on similar principles will help Africa to rise to its challenges, to understand its rich resources, and the best ways in which to sustainably develop and use those resources for important long-term socio-economic benefits.

The datasets created and/or analyzed during the current study are unavailable due to various data-sharing agreements in place.

TM, CE, and PC conceived the study. TM and CE analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. MP and JF contributed significantly to the fieldwork and data management, and all authors edited and approved the manuscript.

Capital equipment funding was provided by the Ocean Tracking Network and National Research Foundation and the Department of Science and Innovation-Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure (DSI-SMCRI) programme, with running expenses funded by the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme and the Save Our Seas Foundation (Keystone Grant 227). Funding for CE and JF was provided by the NRF’s Postdoctoral Professional Development Programme, and funding for research in the Breede Estuary as part of JF’s postdoctoral study was provided by the SANOCEAN Programme (project number: 287015).

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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