Giant clams under threat as poachers target Philippine, Indonesian waters after China ban

Giant clams, which can weigh up to 200kg and live for more than a century, face an existential threat from illegal poaching - and very likely organised crime - which has spiked in the last few years across Philippine and Indonesian waters, conservationists have warned.

Demand for the molluscs - often over a metre wide - has surged in tandem with stricter global controls on ivory, with the visual similarity of the massive clam making it sought-after by China's carving industry.

And the giant clam, often misunderstood and even at times inaccurately known as a man-eating creature, is often considered a delicacy, including in Japan and France.

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With this multitude of human threats, in some coral reefs giant clams have already disappeared. And they are easy targets as, once attached to reefs, rocks, or other steady surfaces, they sit in the same spot, until they die.

Southeast Asia's waters have been further targeted by poachers from various places, including China, since Beijing banned harvesting giant claims in its own seas in 2015.

In a rare report on the invertebrate, titled Trading Giants, released on Wednesday, global wild species trade watchdog TRAFFIC said the Philippines and Indonesia accounted for more than 84 per cent of the 7,682 giant clam shells seized between 2003 and 2022 that implicated Southeast Asia.

In terms of tonnage, however, the Philippines accounted for 99.7 per cent of the haul - more than 120,000 tonnes. This came almost entirely from a single seizure in General Santos City in Mindanao in 2019.

The Philippine News Agency said in its report of the raid that the clams - locally known as taklobo - were sold for around US$35 per kilogram, meaning a clam could fetch as much as US$7,000.

The poaching has continued despite the 1998 Philippine Fisheries Code stating that fishing for some kinds of giant clams is illegal, with violators facing imprisonment of between five years and eight years, and a fine of up to US$54,000. Some clams are totally protected, while some can be traded with the correct permit.

Experts are increasingly concerned. The figures are "worrying", said Rama Wong, Senior Wildlife Crime Analyst and co-author of the report, "given that scientific findings from over a decade ago already pointed to declining giant clam populations".

She said some species are becoming "functionally extinct" in some countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines, meaning the population is dying out and no longer plays a role in the ecosystem.

Wong and co-author Marianne Allison Lee said giant clams contributed to coral reef health, abundance and diversity by acting as a base for reef organisms, an additional food source for the ecosystem, and filtering nutrients from the water.

They have long been harvested both legally and illegally for food, as decorative items, and for the aquarium trade.

According to Singaporean marine ecologist Mei Lin Neo, an expert in giant clams, individual products made in China for the Chinese market from blood-red giant clams can sell for over US$7,000, when shaped into Buddhist prayer beads, while figurines can fetch up to US$30,000.

The clams' shells are marked with unique growth lines, Neo said, meaning all pieces made are unique, so can be sold for a lot.

In the 29 cases where species information was available, the report said over 70 per cent of seized shells were china (or porcelain) clams, Hippopus porcellanus, one of the rarest giant clams in the world.

Since 2010, the Philippines and Indonesia have both implemented giant clam restocking programmes to counter population decline.

Over the years, Manila has repeatedly protested against the mass harvesting of giant clams in its waters - disputed South China Sea areas - by Chinese vessels.

In 2019, then Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr said his government had filed a diplomatic protest and sought legal action against such activities.

"We protest this. This is illegal, and in fact, you are also violating conventions on environmental protection, for which we can take legal action," Locsin told CNN Philippines.

In 2015, the nation's Department of Foreign Affairs lodged a complaint against Beijing for the harvesting of giant clams, saying it led to the permanent destruction of coral reefs which had an impact on the livelihoods of Filipino fishermen.

"China's toleration of, and active support for, environmentally harmful fishing practices by its nationals at Bajo de Masinloc [Scarborough Shoal, known in China as Huangyan Island] constitute breaches of its obligations under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora," the department said.

Wednesday's TRAFFIC report suggests the large volume of seized clams point to the involvement of organised crime.

While it is legal to trade in 10 of the existing 12 giant clam species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) TRAFFIC found "significant discrepancies" in trade figures reported by importing and exporting countries, with over 1 million shells unaccounted for.

"Greater enforcement effort is good news, but given the size of legal trade reported, it must be coupled with more scrutiny ... to ensure unscrupulous traders aren't exploiting the system," said Kanitha Krishnasamy, director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.

The group said that without closer monitoring, giant clams could die out before the world properly recognises the full extent of the threat to them.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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