SADSTIA is an association of South African trawler owners and operators that catch, process and market Cape hake.

In the deep-sea trawling industry, right-holders generally do not conduct business as “one ship, one quota” entities. Instead, they work together in clusters to optimise the use of fishing rights or vessels.

The SADSTIA Constitution sets out the fundamental principles according to which the Association is governed. SADSTIA’s first constitution was adopted on 24 March 1974 and an updated constitution was adopted on 12 September 2002. This was in recognition of the fact that circumstances in South Africa and the deep-sea trawling industry changed considerably in the intervening years, with membership of the Association being opened to a much larger number of vessel operators.

Although 52 fishing rights were allocated in 2006, a degree of consolidation has taken place and there are currently 46 entities operating in the industry.