Saving Seafood

Flocking to Robben Island: Tourists by Day, Poachers by Night

August 16, 2016 — Robben Island in South Africa is getting to be notorious again — and this time it’s not for racial oppression.

The apartheid-era prison on the island is now a tourist attraction, where visitors from around the world pause with reverence outside the cell where Nelson Mandela was kept. The ferry ride back to the mainland merely deepens the sense of isolation that the inmates must have felt.

But the waters surrounding Robben Island, just off the coast near Cape Town, also happen to be among the richest in the world for delicious shellfish — especially abalone, which is highly prized in Asia. That has made the island a hot spot for shellfish poaching.

At night, when the island is closed to tourists, poachers in inflatable boats known as rubber ducks often make their way toward its rocky coastline and dive illegally in the shallows in search of the mollusks.

Read the full story at the New York Times

MASSACHUSETTS: South African scientist, Cape Cod officials talk shark spotting strategies

January 25, 2016 — This past summer, it seemed as though Atlantic great white sharks, once thought to be elusive and rarely seen, were suddenly everywhere.

Popular beaches were closed to swimming as great whites moved north in the waning days of summer away from what is thought of as their stomping ground — the relatively remote and unpopulated Monomoy islands — and into the heart of tourist country.

Earlier this month, beach managers, town officials and Cape Cod National Seashore representatives met for the first time in more than a year to consider ways to protect the millions who will come to Cape beaches this summer. It is the first in a series of similar monthly meetings this winter.

“What it told me is we’re on the right track. Education is big,” Orleans Natural Resources Director Nate Sears said about a presentation by South African shark scientist Alison Kock at the Jan. 12 workshop hosted by the Seashore.

Kock’s visit was paid for by the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the main fundraiser for shark research by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries scientists Greg Skomal and John Chisholm. Kock is the research manager for Cape Town’s Shark Spotters Program, which employs locals to scan beaches with binoculars from high vantage points and warn beach officials of sharks. Along with the Save Our Seas foundation, the group sponsors shark research and conservation while attempting to keep beachgoers safe.

“I am very impressed by the proactive stance being taken on the Cape,” Kock wrote in an email from South Africa after her visit. Nothing happened in Cape Town until after a series of fatal attacks on swimmers and surfers a decade ago, she said. Kock praised the signs and brochures that have been in place on Cape beaches for two years.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times