Thank you very much, Minister. I think you are well aware of the fact that when initiative 5 and Natjoints operations become effective in one area, crime moves on to another area. Therefore, I just want to say - and I think you know this - that research indicated that illegal abalone trade is 4,5 times more than rhino horn trade and 3,2 times more than ivory trade. An average of 2 174 tons per year over the past 17 years with an average value of R628 million a year is being poached. These devastating figures can be attributed to ongoing organised crime.
Minister, will you as the lead department or agency please undertake and support the following in our effort to address this absolute maritime crisis? Firstly, to pursue in Cabinet that abalone poaching
be recognised as a priority crime as well as categorised as an organised crime to ensure maximum sentences;
Secondly, to advocate that abalone is classified as a protected species under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act of 2004; and
Thirdly, include abalone under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Cites.
We as parliamentarians will do our due to contribute to the amending of these Acts if we have your support.
The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Thank you very
much, hon Labuschagne. Together with the national department of safety, we have developed a wildlife crime strategy. That strategy has not yet been brought before Cabinet. I had a meeting with Minister Bheki Cele about two weeks ago to request him - because his department is responsible - to bring that particular memorandum before Cabinet, because in that memorandum one of the species that would be identified as a priority crime species would be abalone. You would know that at the moment rhino poaching is identified as a priority crime.
I think that one of the things that we are going to be doing is to set up a special team of experts to look at the whole issue of the abalone fishery. You would understand that if we make it a protected species and if we put it under Cites it de facto will close the fishery.
I think one of the things we've always got to think about is that if you don't find legal ways for people to engage in the harvesting of abalone they might then find illegal ways of doing that, which as we know, they have already done.
Part of the reason for putting up that task team is so that they can give me overall advice as to how we are going to deal with the impact that illegal harvesting has had on the fish stocks and what measures we should be taking to ensure that there is a recovery of those fish stocks.