Tasmanian wild-caught abalone diver tells of the dangers of the deep
Glen Shackcloth has one of the best office views in Australia - if not the world. In the morning, he'll make a cup of tea and look out across a sweep of ocean on Bruny Island, Tasmania. The size and direction of swells help tell him when it's time to get to work. Unfortunately, that work can be cold, wet and sometimes very dangerous.
As a seasoned abalone diver Shackcloth knows how to assess the ocean the way an accountant reads a balance sheet. Abalone might look like harmless single-shelled molluscs that need a deft flick of a knife to detach them from a rock, but harvesting them takes a trained eye to factor in the risks - from strong currents to sharks.
Australia is the only country recommended by WWF Hong Kong as a sustainable source of wild-caught abalone. Wild abalone is under threat of extinction due to overfishing. In South Africa, triad gangs are allegedly paying poachers to smuggle tonnes of illegally harvested abalone. Australia's tiny state of Tasmania is the country's biggest source - bringing in almost 2,000 tonnes a year - or about a quarter of the world's wild abalone. Most of it is sent fresh to Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland.
Diving for wild abalone is year-round, but demand starts to increase around this time of year as processors and suppliers start to prepare for Lunar New Year. The luxury food is prized for its delicacy and symbolism of good fortune.
Anyone in Tasmania can wade into shallow waters and prise up to 10 abalone off rocks to take home. But with abalone selling for an average of around A$100 a kilo (HK$700), it's much more regulated for commercial divers. "It's like swimming around picking up $50 bills," says Caleb Gardner, associate professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. Without restriction on hauls it could take decades for an area to recover, says Gardner.
Shackcloth is well aware of the rules. He has to juggle them as well as nature's demands. The diver lives with his family in a town 20 minutes outside of Hobart and comes to his beach house at Adventure Bay on his beloved Bruny Island when diving conditions are favourable. Bruny Island has long stretches of rugged, white-sand beaches that teem with wildlife, including a penguin rookery.