Yesterday, I watched thousands of crayfish being landed at Gordon’s Bay Harbour.
They were brought in by artisanal fishermen operating under permits issued by the marine authorities. The process was tightly controlled. The crayfish were placed in plastic crates, weighed on a verified scale, and observed and recorded by several inspectors assigned to each catch.
The big concern on the day was air temperature, which is critical to keeping the crayfish alive. Because these crayfish were destined for export, they had to be kept cool on the boats and then transferred quickly into a chiller truck running at about 7°C. From there, they would be taken to a processing facility, where they would be revived in holding baths before eventually being packed for export.
This brings me to prices.
We were told that export prices have dropped, mainly due to increased volumes of crayfish (or lobster) entering the global market from Australia and Mexico. The price being paid for the Gordon’s Bay catch was about $35 per kilogram. The fishermen were hoping for closer to $45 per kilogram, which is what they had become used to in recent years.
The recent dip in crayfish prices at Gordon’s Bay is a direct reflection of a shifting global tide. After a four-year hiatus, Australia has aggressively re-entered the international market, flooding major hubs such as China with record-breaking volumes of Southern Rock Lobster. Combined with steady supply from Mexico, this release of stock has created a global surplus. Locally, South Africa has also seen a massive 58% increase in the legal catch limit for the 2025/2026 season. With more lobster available globally than at any time in the past five years, buyers now have the upper hand, forcing local “beach prices” down from their previous highs.
If you’re a local in False Bay, though, you’ll still pay a fortune for crayfish at restaurants. The last crayfish I ate was about two years ago at a local seafood restaurant, where a whole crayfish was selling for around R150 with rice or chips. It was very small. In fact, they were all very small.
It’s a pity that locals can’t eat crayfish at lower prices, but with the strong commercial and export interests involved, that’s not going to happen. There is, however, a limited season for recreational fishermen and divers, when you can legally catch crayfish yourself and cook it at home at a far more reasonable cost.
While standing at the harbour, I couldn’t help thinking about the tons upon tons of crayfish that are illegally harvested. Crayfish poaching remains high, and newspaper reports regularly describe hundreds of kilograms being confiscated at a time. It’s the same story as with perlemoen (abalone), a species that has been heavily decimated by poachers.
So yes, it’s an interesting and even impressive experience watching crayfish being landed at Gordon’s Bay Harbour. But behind this cottage industry lies a far more troubling reality: increasing pressure on the marine environment from overfishing and illegal poaching. And that is the sad part of the story.
