Abalone Ranching. Can it Work on the West Coast?

Doring Bay Abalone (Pty) Ltd at Doring Bay on the west coast of South Africa, has been there since 2014. Its’ land-based facility successfully farms abalone Haliotis midae and it has a fully functional hatchery on its site. But it has a problem. It’s now over-producing for the land-based facility’s needs. It would like to use the excess spat for experimental ranching in the sea adjacent to the existing facility.

Doring Bay Abalone has applied to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries for a right in terms of section 18 of the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998 to conduct sea-based abalone ranching. The area in mind is about 7km of coastline between Doring Bay and Strandfontein Bay, Western Cape. This area has never been used for abalone ranching.