On Her Majesty’s service
WITH its slimy flesh and obscure name, it is neither glamorous nor cute and cuddly enough to be at the forefront of most wildlife campaigns.
But the fate of the abalone, a unprepossessing shellfish, could be transformed later this month, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex use the star power of their South Africa tour to issue a call to help protect it.
The tour, which will run for 10 days and will also include visits to Malawi, Botswana and Angola, is expected to attract worldwide attention, with baby Archie Mountbatten-Windsor at his parents’ side for their landmark first tour as a family.
As well as carrying out work on pet projects such as female empowerment and landmine clearance, they will also dedicate a morning to the abalone.
Campaigners hope it could inspire major progress in the bid to protect the shellfish, which is suffering its highest poaching levels in the last 20 years in South Africa.
The abalone is a delicacy particularly prized in Asia, selling for up to £420 a plate in China, and has become a magnet for an illegal but lucrative poaching trade.
The UK’s Royal Marines have been providing ding training and support to local units to combat t the trade, and the Duke and Duchess’s tour, planned at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, will ll highlight the issue.
Announcing details s of the tour this week, Samantha Cohen, the cou- ouple’s private secretary, said the second day of the tour, when the Sussex family will be in Cape Town, will involve the Duke and Duchess learning about litter picking and plastic waste at Monwabisi Beach before “the Duke will then join the City of Cape Town Marine Unit to travel by boat to Seal Island, Kalk Bay, to learn about the important role they play in combating the poaching of abalone”.
Wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic reported that South Africa’s coasts had been stripped of at least 96million abalone in the last 18 years, with 9.6million poached in 2016 alone.
The Duke and Duchess’s tour is expected to feature more than 30 engagements, including a visit to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy three-country partnership to protect wildlife corridors around the Okavango Delta, and tree planting in Chobe Forest Tree Reserve, both in Botswana.