Abalone farming, the State and the Zama-Zamas

Writer Elaine Davie

Shock! Horror! That is the invariable reaction of Overstrand residents every time there’s a new abalone bust in the area, as there was last week in an upmarket townhouse complex in Sandbaai. Yet poaching incidents consistently occur in plain sight in this part of the world; it can hardly be a surprise anymore. How could the other householders in the complex not have known what was going on in their midst? The smell alone would have been impossible to miss.

A full abalone processing plant was being operated in every section of the house, involving live and dried abalone worth around R3.9 million. And this was obviously not a onceoff, hit-and-run operation. Equally, a casual stroller in broad daylight along the rocky shoreline between Gansbaai and Pringle Bay is very likely any day of the week to encounter the Zama-Zamas of the ocean either in the sea in wetsuit and goggles, or casually emerging from it with their catch in hand. Only a couple of weeks ago, there was a shoot-out between poachers and police just outside of Kleinmond.

Live abalone confiscated during the recent bust in Sandbaai.

The web of intrigue surrounding abalone poaching is difficult to unravel, involving, as it does, transnational drug, prostitution and money laundering operations, mostly controlled by powerful cartels in the East (see The Village NEWS of 19 June 2019). However, there is also evidence of rampant corruption in this country, mainly linked to officials employed by various State departments and agencies, tasked with protecting the natural resources of our country.

Ironically, in contrast to the criminal activity surrounding abalone poaching in the Overstrand, this same region is also home to a lucrative legal abalone industry, involving nine well-developed farms. How, one wonders, does the illegal trade affect their business and to what extent are they involved in attempts to eradicate it?

Poached abalone in a Chinese medicine and abalone shop in Guanchzhou, China. PHOTO: Tim Hedges

Tim Hedges, Managing Director of Abagold in Hermanus, sketches a fascinating picture of the global industry: It appears that South Africa is, in fact, quite a minor player on the world market. Its legal output is only approximately 1 500 tons of the total 170 000 tons produced annually. China itself, with extensive cage farming operations in the South China Sea, produces approximately 85% of the legal abalone on the market. Other producers are Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

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