Cape Town - Experts have confirmed the West Coast Rock Lobster (WCRL) continues to be on the red list of the The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), while the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment in conjunction with the police are continuing to make inroads into the illicit trade.
Just last week, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment in cooperation with the police, the Overberg Law Enforcement unit, Cape Nature and the South African National Parks (SANParks) carried out an operation which led to a vessel being searched where 2679 West Coast Rock Lobster tails including 125 tails from egg-bearing females were found.
Authorities are now continuing to hunt for additional suspects and have yet to confirm how many arrests were made
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George’s office said in an earlier incident, following the recent opening of the commercial West Coast Rock Lobster season, a suspect was also arrested in the Overberg area with 1,147 rock lobster tails, of which 819 were from egg-bearing females on November 13, 2024
“In this incident egg-bearing female lobsters were targeted and the impact of this illicit activity is devastating to the status of the resource as millions of potential lobsters are destroyed. The Department remains resolute in its commitment to protect this vital resource and ensure sustainable practices,” his office said.
George said they were gravely concerned about the environmental impact of the illicit trade.
“The illegal and indiscriminate harvesting of the West Coast Rock Lobster resource is threatening the sustainability of the resource and the communities who depend on it.
“The West Coast Rock Lobster is a resource that is now considered severely overexploited with current resource estimates of adult males above 75mm carapace length at less than 1.5% of its 1,910 pristine biomass,” said Dr George.
Dr Carina Bruwer, Senior Researcher, Transnational Organised Crime, Southern Africa, ENACT Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, said the IUCN assessment and DFFE’s 2023 report on the Status of South African Fisheries and said although the species is IUCN listed as least concern, it is still threatened by illegal fishing practices, including by individuals, groups, and fishing companies,” she said.
“These trade threats are compounded with environmental threats, as you will see in the Status of Fisheries report.
“WCRL catch is regulated under the Marine Living Resources Act Regulations Part 9. If the seizures took place in a Marine Protected Area, this is also an offence in terms of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act.
“WCRL is also currently on the SASSI red list – urging people not to purchase them.”
According to the IUCN assessment and DFFE’s 2023 report on the Status of South African Fisheries shared by Dr Bruwer with Weekend Argus, it states that the West Coast Rock Lobster remains heavily depleted.
“Once a lucrative commercial fishery, earning up to approximately R100 million annually at the turn of the Century, rampant illegal harvesting and continued declines in the abundance of the resource resulted in a total closure of the fishery in February 2008.
“The resource has also been heavily impacted by an ecosystem shift that was brought about by the migration of West Coast Rock Lobster into two of the main, most productive, abalone fishing areas,” the report reads.