South African Abalone - Meet The Endangered
South African Abalone (Haliotis midae)
Abalone are large mollusks known for their distinctive ear-like shape, iridescent shells, and sumptuous meat, which is considered a delicacy in many world cuisines. In East Asia, its extremely high price serves as a status symbol and it is served on special occasions like Chinese New Year, weddings and birthdays.
Meat of the South African Abalone can fetch prices of $1000/kg ($454/lb) in Asian markets, five times pricier than Iberico Ham or Wagyu Beef. It is typically dried after harvesting and then rehydrated for use in soups. Traffic in dried abalone meat is dominated by multinational criminal gangs, typically the same ones engaged in the illegal drug trade.
The South African Abalone - like many of the 54 abalone species globally - is listed as endangered due to its slow reproduction cycles and voracious poaching. South Africa’s government lacks the resources to effectively fight poaching, so the abalone’s best hope is displacement of demand by aquaculture of other species. But the perverse truth is that H. midae’s endangered, illegal status is precisely what makes it so coveted.
IUCN: Endangered (EN)
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