This review traces the development of South African coastal fisheries from prehistory to the present. Three phases are identified—a low-intensity prehistoric phase, in which attention was focused on easily accessed intertidal species, a period of rapidly increasing commercialisation and technological development, covering most of the present century, and a newly emerging phase of increasing species and product diversification. The effects of exploitation on both the target stocks themselves, and their associated communities, are examined. The population densities and size distributions of many target species have been radically impacted by human exploitation and such effects are generally well documented. The effects of exploitation on community dynamics are far less well appreciated, but they can be equally dramatic and may carry major economic implications. For example, rock lobster, sea urchins, abalone and kelp are linked by a complex web of biological interactions. Options for improving the management strategies applicable to coastal marine resources are discussed, including the need for management at the level of ecosystems rather than species, the revision of regulations to accommodate biological and social realities, and the feasibility of novel approaches such as the encouragement of co-operatives, co-management and coastal zonation of different types of harvesting.