Perlemoen (Abalone) Poaching

In just a decade, more than 7,245 African rhinos have been lost to poaching.  And although the poaching statistics for 2016 showed a 10.3% decline compared with the previous year, it still meant that 1 054 rhinos were killed last year at a rate of nearly three rhinos per day.  Shocking news. Enough to let any true South African and nature lover see red…

But, while the world's attention is on the "safe the rhino campaign" (and not unrightly so), things are happening at our Cape coast that will let your hair stand on end.

Let's start at the beginning...

Abalone, Haliotis midae, locally called “perlemoen”, is a large marine snail that is a highly prized seafood delicacy in the Far East.  Abalone are slow-growing, reaching sexual maturity at around seven years of age, and take approximately 8 to 9 years to reach the minimum legal size of 11.4cm shell breadth.  They occur in shallow waters less than 20m depth, but the highest densities occur in waters less than 5m depth.  Abalone are widely distributed around the South African coastline, from St. Helena Bay on the west Coast to just north of Port St Johns on the East Coast.  Historically, the resource was most abundant in the region between Cape Columbine and Quoin Point, where it supported a commercial fishery for about 65 years.

Once a lucrative commercial fishery, earning up to approximately R100 million annually at the turn of the century, rampant illegal harvesting and continued declines in the abundance of the resource resulted in a total closure of the fishery in February 2008.

Go Google the words “perlemoen poaching” and you will be left speechless about what you read there...  And this didn't happen years ago, it happened in the past few months! It will keep you awake at night!

In a “Report of the standing committee on economic opportunities, tourism and agriculture” of 1 Augustus 2017 we read the following:

It is estimated that illegal harvesting of abalone from South African shores comprise more than 90% of total abalone production with an estimated value, after processing, of more than R1 billion.

The report stated that various factors were instrumental in the rapid growth of illicit abalone poaching, namely the weakening of the South African currency, pre-existing presence in South Africa of Chinese organised crime networks who facilitated access to East Asian markets for South African contraband and vice versa; the seemingly insurmountable difficulty of devising and executing border controls and finally and most importantly, coastal communities unfulfilled expectation of equitable access to marine resources after the transition to a democratic political dispensation.  Furthermore, there were an increased demand for African abalone, which is regarded as superior quality to abalone from other countries.

Poaching started to thrive in coastal fishing communities and became an important source of livelihood for many due to the absence of government assurances such as legislation and policy interventions, and ensuring equitable access to marine resources for coastal communities.

In quite a few articles on the internet it becomes obvious that poachers are growing more and more arrogant, they're not afraid of the police anymore and will walk the streets in full diving gear in broad daylight, or are dropped off at points for everybody to see. Anybody going near to confront them is intimidated and chased off. 

Perlemoen poaching is closely linked to gangs and drugs. The value of the poached abalone runs into millions of rand and the income generated is used to manufacture drugs such as methamphetamine (tik).  It is obvious that law enforcement agencies don't have the capacity and resources to successfully tackle the problem. To tell the truth some of them are part of the problem!

In 2016 a few policemen of Gansbaai were arrested for playing leading roles in huge syndicates of the Overberg-district.  Smuggling activities and payments took place at officers' houses, important documents disappeared from the police precincts and police vehicles were even used to transport the poached abalone from the harbour.  It is believed that this syndicate had 700 members. They allegedly smuggled abalone worth R2 billion, poaching an average of 1.1 ton a day over a 13-year period between 1998 and 2011.

On February 13 2017 it was reported that the Department of Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) discovered a 13m container at the Cape Town harbour housing R30m worth of illegally harvested perlemoen. The department said in a statement that, with help from the South African Police Service, 9.4 tons of wet abalone and 3.3 tons of dried perlemoen were confiscated from the container.

In a separate incident on February 2, DAFF and SAPS raided an illegal abalone processing plant in Milnerton and Montague Gardens. At least 27 182 dried, as well as 13 837 wet perlemoen were confiscated in the incident. The July police arrested 16 people in six separate incidents in relation to the illegal harvesting of perlemoen. All the incidents occurred within the Western Cape.

Abalone looted from Cape Ocean South Africa SAPS Lansdowne June 27 2009
Reported by Censorbugbear

 Times Live reported on July 11 2017 :

“Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said two men in their 40s were arrested at an illegal processing facility on a farm in Bottelary Road‚ Brackenfell.
“The seizure comprised 6‚878 units of fresh abalone‚ 24‚922 units of dry abalone and equipment used for the processing of abalone‚” he said.
Half an hour later‚ police pulled over a cold storage truck in Montague Gardens and found five tons of frozen abalone in 213 bags.”

In August 2017 the police found 32 000 abalone in Blackheath.

And the list can go on...

The shocking part of all this, is the news from a police source that poaching in the Western Cape is so rampant that between 800 and 1‚000 divers harvest abalone between the coastal communities of Rooi-Els and Die Dam every day!

According to Pieter van Dalen DA-LP, poachers seem to be using our ocean as their own personal ATM machine. If they are in need of money, they simply make a perlemoen withdrawal.