South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) has announced new measures to restore collapsing wild abalone populations.
After reports indicated that abalone biomass in South African waters has been reduced to less than 2 percent of pristine biomass levels in some areas, South Africa Fisheries Minister Dion George said his department has proposed for the listing of dry wild abalone in the Appendix II category of the of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – a designation reserved for species not necessarily threatened with extinction but would require CITES to permit trading as a control measure.
In an additional attempt to restore abalone populations, the DFFE has set the 2025-26 TAC for the South African commercial abalone fishery at just over 12 metric tons (MT), with George saying the decision was based on “the advice of the Abalone Scientific Working Group, which considered catch per unit effort [CPUE] indices, fishery-independent survey data, and updated estimates of illegal catches up to 2025.”
The Haliotis midae (H. midae) species of abalone is the only one of the five species endemic to the waters of South Africa that carries significant commercial value. Because it fetches high prices, it has faced heavy pressure from poaching, with a recent report estimating 190 million H. midae abalone have been poached since 2000, a problem blamed largely on weak governance.
Hong Kong, which buys more than 90 percent of abalone from South Africa, has reported in official statistics that only 57 percent of abalone imports between 2000 and 2016 were legally exported by South Africa, while 43 percent were smuggled to neighboring, non-producing countries, such as Mozambique, Namibia, and Kenya, and then exported.
With illicit trade so prevalent, George has moved to secure CITES protection, saying the listing would ensure all international trade in dried abalone from South Africa is accompanied by CITES export permits, “with shipments subject to strict monitoring, verification, and reporting.”
He added that an Appendix II listing, if granted, would close regulatory loopholes.
This push for a CITES Appendix II listing comes nearly 15 years after South Africa removed dried abalone from CITES Appendix III – a designation listing species protected by at least one country, requiring other CITES member countries to help control trade by issuing permits or certificates for legal, regulated export – a decision some have said was largely influenced by lobbying on behalf of the South African fishing industry.
