SUE BLAINE, Johannesburg | Tuesday
PERLEMOEN poaching on the South African shores has increased threefold over the past two years, scientists and the SA Police Service say.
”The general feeling is that (perlemoen) poaching is virtually out of control, huge amounts are taken out of the sea every day,” says Rob Tarr, scientist at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism marine and coastal management.
Tarr cites research which shows that South African authorities confiscated around 370 000 perlemoen in 2001, in comparison to 100 000 in 1998.
He attributes this massive increase to a continual rise in price for the shellfish, which is considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in the Far East.
Tarr says it is also possible that, because of the way people can make money ”hand over fist” from perlemoen, many who have not been allocated perlemoen harvesting rights under a new allocation process have turned to poaching.
Another problem for the South African perlemoen, which is one of the country’s six species of abalone, is that over 50% of the animals poached are undersized and have not reached reproductive maturity.
”That is a disastrous step for any animal population. If that happens in any animal population that population is headed one way,” Tarr says.
”Poachers don’t care (about size and maturity),” agrees Dr Neville Sweijd, deputy director of the International Ocean Institute of Southern Africa at the University of the Western Cape.
He explains that it is often the smaller, younger abalone of the species commonly known as perlemoen (Haliotis midae) that are taken because they are, quite simply, easier to harvest.
The younger abalone are found closer to the shoreline, and often bunched together.
”They can get a whole whack of them at one spot”’ he says.
Abalone are ”broadcast spawners”, they release their reproductive cells into the surrounding water which is why, around the age they reach reproductive maturity, they clump together.
Sweijd says the impact of poaching in South Africa is ”severe” and warns that the local perlemoen industry cannot sustain the damage caused.
All six South African abalone species are found along various parts of the county’s coast, but the perlemoen occurs from St Helena Bay on the southern part of the Cape West Coast to the former Transkei coast.
Of these, four are extremely rare and of no use, or interest, to poachers purely because they are small. Some only reach the size of a R5 coin.
It is the other two, Haliotis midae and Haliotis spadicea (commonly known as ”siffies” or Venus ear), that are used commercially. It is, however, Haliotis midae that poachers like to get their hands on. ”Siffies” are used mostly for bait. It is perlemoen which are on gourmets’ wish lists.
Sweijd says Haliotis midae reaches ”fantastic” prices in the Far East, and a South African retailer quoted between R500 and R600 for a kilogram of the meat.
However, because regulations from the legislation differ for these two species, defence lawyers often dispute that the abalone found in their clients’ possession is in fact Haliotis midae. This forces the State to prove the specific origin of the meat in question.
Sweijd developed a way around this — DNA testing.
Testing can ”footprint” the species, which is useful as confiscated abalone is often shell-less (shucked and cleaned), or dried.
”It’s a bit like fingerprinting, but this is species-specific and we can even differentiate between several important commercially exploited international species,” Sweijd says.
There are around 55 species of abalone worldwide and Sweijd worked closely with a group from Australia’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to expand the DNA footprinting for abalone.
This technique has now been used to identify and differentiate between other species in similar disputes, such as the Patagonian toothfish species and the grunter species, a popular KwaZulu-Natal fish.
Poaching and smuggling is big money.
Between August 22 last year and January 9 the police’s Operation Neptune, established to combat poaching, confiscated 191 649 abalone, estimated to be worth ”at the very least” R21-million, says Inspector Eben Groenewald, the operation’s representative.
Tarr agrees: ”It is not a question of poor fishermen trying to make money. We are talking of wealthy men with big cars – those are the main instigators.”
Groenewald says although the police have made ”quite a few recent breakthroughs” the problem is ”enormous”.
Most poaching and smuggling syndicates based in South Africa are run by South Africans who supply people in the Far East, and it’s the usual story –the police, with little resources and staff, have to do battle with wealthy international organisations.
Despite this Groenewald feels an impact is being made.
”We work in close conjunction with the Organised Crime Unit and other (police) units, the SA Revenue Service (SARS), the army and the navy. More and more people are having to explain to the (SARS) where they got their cars and so on from.”
Groenewald is also encouraged by the concern showed by the general public over poaching and smuggling.
But poaching and smuggling are not the end to the abalone’s woes.
There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of crayfish on parts of the South African coast. Crayfish eat sea-urchins, and young abalone often hide under sea-urchins.
”Yes, that’s also a factor (contributing to the dwindling numbers of abalone), but it is long term,” says Tarr.
Sweijd says the crayfish problem ”seems to be stable”, but is adding to the pressure on the population. – Sapa