Aquaculture in South Africa - Farming Endangered Abalone

'Abalone farming has the highest economic value as compared to all other farmed products'

Known in South Africa as "perlemoen", abalone is so endangered the government has drastically reduced the total allowable catch in the wild and attempted to encourage saltwater farming of the curlicue-shaped shellfish.
Resembling a giant limpet and a distant relative of garden snails, it thrives only in oceans or special land-based farms that use seawater to cultivate the creatures.

'The amount of illegal abalone confiscated in South Africa has skyrocketed'
Abalone's growing popularity in Asia, where it is a status symbol and reputed aphrodisiac, has spurred sophisticated smuggling rings, some linked to China's notorious Triad gangs, according to South Africa's Institute of Security Studies.

The amount of illegal abalone confiscated in South Africa has skyrocketed to more than a million shellfish from a mere 21 000 in 1994. It is now common for police to pull over trucks, sometimes refrigerated, carrying illegal abalone on the roads of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, where most of the delicacy is harvested. "We've had good successes, especially towards the end of 2006, where we seized huge quantities of abalone - this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Captain Billy Jones, a spokesperson for the Western Cape provincial police. But legitimate businesses also see a future in abalone farming in South Africa. 'Abalone farming has the highest economic value as compared to all other farmed products'
Production accounts for 60 percent of the country's aqua-culture revenues. In 2006 it was worth more than R141-million and employed about 800 people.

"Abalone farming has the highest economic value as compared to all other farmed products and is the highest employer within the marine aquaculture sector," said Blessing Manale, spokesperson for South Africa's department of environmental affairs. He said the department hoped job losses in shrinking abalone fishery could be offset in the burgeoning farm-raised sector, which in 2006 produced more than 900 tons of abalone and is projected to hit the 1 000 ton mark in 2007.

Read the entire article SA caters to Asia's craving for 'perlemoen', News for South Africa (February 06 2007 at 11:44AM)