Cape Town — The future is bleak for almost 1000 abalone (perlemoen) fishermen and their families, and the economies of small southern Cape towns could also be at risk following the government's decision to indefinitely ban all commercial exploitation of abalone from November 1.

The abalone fishery in South African waters has been subjected to relentless poaching in recent years with thousands of tons illegally taken in addition to the total allowable catch of a little more than 100 tons in 2006-07. The decision has been taken to ensure the survival of abalone which are now threatened with extinction.

Chief government spokesman Themba Maseko said a social plan to mitigate the effects of the ban would go hand in hand with a complete cessation of commercial fishing. There would also be an increase in policing to try to stem the poaching of abalone.

He said the social plan, which has been the focus of discussion in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) this week, would ensure that the economies of small Cape towns dependent on the abalone fishery would not collapse.

"This suspension was based on the fact that the abalone stock is in a crisis and is threatened with commercial extinction. The main causes of the decline in abalone stocks are poaching and the migration of West Coast Rock Lobsters into the abalone areas which consume sea urchins that provide shelter to juvenile abalone," Maseko said.

He said the social plan included the development of a sustainable abalone aqua-culture industry and the issue of more permits for whale watching and shark cage diving. The idea is to allow abalone divers to migrate to the tourism industry and use their skills in the areas of whale watching and cage diving.

Environment Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the decision was a tough one but it was designed to ensure the survival of the species so that generations to come would know what abalone were.

"To suspend fishing in any fishery is a very difficult decision to take as we are aware that such a decision will have an impact on the livelihoods of many people and families in the industry. We are unfortunately at a point where the commercial harvesting of wild abalone can no longer be justified because the stock has declined to such an extent that the resource is threatened with commercial extinction.

"For the past few years the recommendation from our departments' managers and researchers has been that the fishery is in crisis and that closure could not be avoided," Van Schalkwyk said.

He said the high point of an unregulated abalone industry was in the mid-1960s when about 3000 tons were harvested. The numbers declined rapidly until a total allowable catch of between 600 tons and 700 tons was introduced in 1970. It remained at this limit until 1995.

"Over the past 10 years, due to declining resources, the total allowable catch has had to be reduced annually from 615 tons in 1995 to a record low of 125 tons for the 2006-07 season. It is perhaps time to consider a complete ban on all perlemoen harvesting for 10 years to allow the resource to recover.

"We have consulted with the labour department and jointly developed a social plan to mitigate impacts of suspending wild abalone commercial fishing," Van Schalkwyk said.