The insatiable appetite for-abalone in Asia is leaving the huge South African mollusc stuck between a rock and a hard place. Thomas P Peschak reports from the anti-extinction frontline. Anti-poaching patrols are no fun. I've been motionless for two hours, wedged in a tangle of bush and shrub, staring into darkness. In the thundering surf below me, 20 divers are hidden in a dense canopy of kelp, their presence only revealed by the crests of passing waves silhouetting their wetsuits. Without lights, they feel for their quarry, stabbing its muscular foot with rusty screwdrivers, then removing their catch from the rock. At the surface, a thrust with a knife detaches the meat, and the shell is left to drift down to the sea bottom.
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机译：亚洲人对鲍鱼的狂热需求使南非大批软体动物陷入了困境。托马斯·P·佩沙克（Thomas P Peschak）从灭绝前线报道。反偷猎巡逻没什么好玩的。我已经一动不动了两个小时，被灌木丛和灌木丛缠住，凝视着黑暗。在我下面的雷鸣般的海浪中，二十名潜水员被藏在一个密密的海带冠层中，只有波涛拍打着潜水衣的波峰才表明他们的存在。他们没有采光，就好像采石场一样，用生锈的螺丝刀刺伤了其肌肉发达的脚，然后将捕获物从岩石上移开。在水面，用刀子将肉分开，然后将贝壳移到海底。
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