Rioting in Hout Bay, Cape Town, after 'poacher' allegedly shot by fisheries compliance officers.

Rioting broke out in the Hout Bay area of Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday 12 August 2018, following the apparent death of a diver during a confrontation with officials of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, on Saturday 11 August. Deurick van Blerk‚ 25‚ from Hangberg, was one of three divers on a boat which was fired upon by an anti-poaching patrol. The other two men were taken into custody on suspicion of hunting for South African Abelone, Haliotis midae, and West Coast Rock Lobster, Jasus lalandii, but van Blerk fell from the boat and has not been seen since, and is presumed to have been shot by the patrol.

Burning vehicles set on fire by protesters following the death of a diver in a confrontation with an anti-poaching patrol. City of Cape Town.

 

Both South African Abalone and West Coast Lobster are valuable commercial species in the Western Cape, with a system of quotas operated by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry to prevent over-fishing. Concerns about excess harvesting have led to no permits to collect Abalone being issued for several years, while the Lobsters have a closed season between June and November. Despite this, there is still a highly lucrative harvesting industry, with police seizing Abalone worth an estimated 3.5 million rand from a single illegal drying plant on Sunday 12 August, and several similar events occurring in June and July.

Abalone seized during a raid on an illegal drying plant in Cape Town on Sunday 12 August 2018. South African Police Service.

However, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry has been accused of unfairly targetting members of the Khoisan community, who claim to be forced to act illegally as they are excluded from the formal licencing system, and that by doing so they are excercising a right to harvest traditional food sources.

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A new species of Abalone from São Tomé & Príncipe.

Abalones (Haliotidae) are large, flattened marine Gastropods with distinctive shells. They have a row of small circular openings on their shells used for breathing, and a mother-of-pearl interior. They are widely eaten, and farmed in many areas, though in other places over-collection of wild Abalones has provoked conservation concerns.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 16 July 2014, Buzz Owen of Gualala, California, describes a new species of Abalone from the São Tomé & Príncipe Islands in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. The São Tomé & Príncipe Islands form an extension of the Cameroon Volcanic Line from the coast of Cameroon to the island of Annobón in the eastern Atlantic, and are considered a biodiversity hotspot with a large proportion of endemic species, although one that has been poorly studied to date.

The new species is placed in the genus Haliotis, and given the specific name geigeri, in honour of Daniel Geiger, an expert on Abalones. Haliotis geigeri is a small Abalone, reaching 41 mm (many species exceed 10 cm), slightly oblong in shape and with a reddish colouration. The species is described entirely from shells collected at depths of 5-20 m; no living specimens were collected (Gastropods are often described from shells alone).

Specimens of Haliotis geigeri from São Tomé & Príncipe. Owen (2014).

See also…

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 A new species of Slipper Limpet from Chile.

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