Poachers sell these shells at $10 a pop

Carrie West
Times Colonist

Sunday, August 07, 2005

It's one of those great ironies. Our northern abalone, (the sea snails with the silvery shell interior), are threatened by poachers who currently make between $10 and $15 per abalone on the black market. Yet, it appears one of our most plentiful populations resides in the waters near the watchful William Head Institution. So to sum up, our abalone is threatened by thieves yet is safest nestling up to a prison.

To be fair, pilfering poachers didn't start the problem. Our northern abalone (called pinto abalone in the United States) nose-dived due to commercial over-harvesting in B.C. in the 1970s and '80s. Because of the dramatic decline, the feds banned all harvesting in 1990. But the ban isn't working -- abalone are still disappearing and since their heyday, stocks have fallen 85 per cent.

Part of the problem is biology. Abalone wait until they're at least three years old to reproduce, and they don't travel far to find a mate, so thin populations make it tough for abalone to find each other. When they do gather in shallow waters to mate, poachers nab the convenient lot of them before they've had a chance to reproduce. About 30 per cent of the locations studied by the federal government now support zero abalone.

"When I heard those results, I was depressed," says Bryan Jubinville, who heads up a federal fisheries special investigations unit on Vancouver Island. His team is hunting down abalone poachers. He's had some successes. One recent poaching operation racked up about $200,000 in penalties. Another guy was fined $1,000 per abalone (he had six of them). But it's a big coastline and tricky to police. So the government encourages the public to get involved in reporting suspicious activity. Abalone poachers dive at odd hours, at dawn, dusk and evening. And unlike recreational divers, who have a buddy system, an abalone poacher will dive alone. Their boat may not have running lights and they will be in areas not favoured by sports divers.

You might also spy abalone or their reddish shells in someone's truck or boat. But please folks, DON'T approach the poachers or try to be a hero. Jubinville says these people know what they're doing is wrong and could be violent. So just observe and report (the number is: 1-800-465-4336).

The poachers supply unscrupulous Vancouver restaurants. And eating "rare" abalone like ours is desirable to some, according to Jubinville. He's hopeful that more large abalone farms in other parts of the world will ultimately supply cheaper abalone to satisfy this market.

A Bamfield abalone hatchery also provides some hope. Since its 2001 opening, it has released 1.8 million larvae and 77,000 juveniles into the wild. That should make our sea otters happy. They remain our abalone's key natural predators. Their numbers tumbled too, but they've been making a comeback. Is this a problem? Well, abalone and sea otters co-existed before humans entered the picture. And in fact, abalone tend to hide in cracks and crevices when sea otters are around. So let's hope our abalone get really good at hide-and-seek and foil the efforts of human thieves too.

Poachers sell these shells at $10 a pop

...Continued

Carrie West can be contacted at carriewest@telus.net.

Mollusc

- Species: Northern Abalone (called Pinto Abalone in the U.S.)

- Location: Nearshore waters, B.C. (range extends from Mexico to Alaska)

- Official Status: Red-listed (provincial); Threatened (federal) (*Only ocean invertebrate with a complete harvesting ban in B.C.)

- Number remaining in B.C.: unknown

- Ecological significance: Only abalone predominant in B.C. waters. Most northern abalone in the world.

- Favourite food: Algae and kelp.

- Favourite habitat: Rocks, less than 10 metres deep on exposed and semi-exposed coastlines.

- Key threats: Poaching; slow reproductive rate; sea otters.

This is another in a weekly series of columns on the endangered species of Vancouver Island.