Import Export: Abalone Color

Sunday, 20 January 2013

Abalone Color

When Hermanus was founded 150 years ago, perlemoen/abalone was abundant on the shoreline. The fishing industry was the first economic base of the town and became its first tourist attraction as well. Over the years the bounty of fish was greedily harvested, many species disappeared and men turned their attention to the prized shellfish, abalone.Regulations, limited quotas and a limit on the number of packers in the industry could not safeguard the resource. Poachers discovered the easy money available and poaching turned into a full-scale industry.Fortunately there were men of vision in the early 1990’s when the abalone-poaching problem was in its infancy. It was quite clear that government could not do enough to protect the resource, and the only possible solution was aquaculture.