The Marine Living Resources Fund was established in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act (1998). It is the main source of funding for the fisheries management branch of the national Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The fund's mandate and core business is to manage the development and sustainable use of South Africa's marine resources, and protect the integrity and quality of the marine ecosystem. The fund covers the operational costs of an administrative and support component, and the five delivery sub-programmes. The organisation regulates the use of marine resources by administering fishing rights, permits and licences. Key activities include: developing and implementing a policy framework for allocating and managing long term fishing rights in 20 commercial fishing sectors; facilitating and managing the transfer of commercial fishing rights; conserving and protecting seals, seabirds and shorebirds; developing a policy and management framework for the subsistence fishing sector; monitoring fish stocks to prevent over-exploitation or negative impacts on the integrity of marine ecosystems; and developing management strategies to rebuild depleted fish stocks. The key strategic priorities for the fisheries sector over the medium term include: conducting annual fishery specific research to inform the setting of total allowable catches and effort in 22 fishing sectors; investigating the feasibility of two potential new fisheries; implementing the stock- recovery strategy for hake, abalone, West Coast rock lobster and line fish; finalising and implementing the small scale subsistence fisheries policy; broadening the scope of the aquaculture sector by launching 12 aquaculture pilot projects by 2014/15; developing and finalising a fisheries charter to meet transformation targets within the fishing sector; developing and implementing the integrated fisheries security strategy to ensure better compliance, monitoring and enforcement efforts; and promoting job creation and sustainable economic livelihoods by implementing 50 community projects through the Working for Fisheries programme by 2014/15.