The new OMP for South African sardine is being developed assuming implicit spatial management, subject to opt out in some way if ‘red flags’ are raised. Implicit spatial management assumes the distribution of future directed sardine catches east and west of Cape Agulhas will be spread according to past behaviour. While explicit spatial management is simulated to perform well when ‘red flags’ are raised, there are concerns about the practical implementation of explicit spatial management. Thus alternative corrective measures are put forward which maintain implicit spatial management in all years. Two forms of corrective measures are recommended, one for ‘preventative’ red flags and one for ‘penalty’ red flags (which also includes ‘benefit’ green flags).