Off the rocky coast of south-eastern Italy, two Financial Crime Police divers dive up and down in the blue water under the prying eyes of vacationers.
They are not looking for buried treasure or smuggled contraband, but for evidence of the hunt for persimmons, a forbidden mollusc that has become a status symbol and whose poaching is indelibly ravaging Italy’s shores.
The signs are unmistakable.
Just below the surface, the chalky rock that is home to countless organisms is gutted by hundreds of man-made holes – evidence that unscrupulous poachers have chiseled, smashed and blasted the reef to pull out the mussels buried within.
“These men put on their oxygen tanks and masks, go down… with hammer and chisel and start breaking the rock,” said Arcangelo Raffaele Gennari, commander of the Guardia di Finanza in Puglia’s port town of Monopoli.
“There have been cases where we have confiscated mini jackhammers,” he told AFP during a recent visit.
“Even explosives were used.”
The rising black market prices for the narrow-brown “Lithophaga lithophaga”, which is said to have a delicate oyster taste, are fueling trade and can cost almost 200 euros per kilo.
Poachers supply fish markets or restaurant owners who sell under the table to high rollers – including wealthy mobsters – and flaunt their wealth on Sundays with a platter of raw seafood or extravagant spaghetti.
“If you think that in an hour and a half, two hours, if you find the right spot, you can lose eighteen or nine pounds… You’ve made an exorbitant amount of money in one day,” Gennari said.
– Bare Reefs –
Thirty years ago, marine biologist Stefano Piraino and colleagues discovered that more than 40 percent of Puglia’s Ionian coast had been badly damaged by date clam harvesting.
This research led to a 1998 Italian law banning their collection, sale and consumption, followed by an EU-wide ban in 2006.
Returning to the same areas this year as part of a government-funded project, Piraino has so far found fewer sites with recent damage, but has little hope of reefs that have already been destroyed.
Time alone doesn’t heal the “all white, bared” rock surface devoid of life, he said: “It’s a devastating effect”.
Date clams’ painfully slow growth cycle — it takes three decades to grow just two inches — means that once taken, they’re not replaced anytime soon.
More critical, however, are the impacts on the delicate marine ecosystem, where not only the reef but all organisms dependent on it are being destroyed.
A 2019 study by Parthenope University in Naples found an average of 1,500 artificial holes per square meter in the reefs of the southwestern Sorrento Peninsula, damage that ultimately causes the rock to collapse completely, damaging the seabed below.
Researchers are studying ways to help reefs recover, including removing sea urchins, whose grazing prevents new vegetation from growing on rocks, or planting seedlings of tiny organisms in hopes they will reproduce.
But the problem goes beyond Italy, warned Piraino, who called for more education and enforcement across the Mediterranean.
A search on TripAdvisor.com found date clams mentioned by reviewers or featured in photos in restaurants in Albania, Slovenia and Montenegro as recently as last year, where they are illegal but easier to find.
– environmental disaster –
In March, environmental groups hailed a six-year sentence for the head of a criminal ring operating in protected areas near Naples and the island of Capri — the first-ever conviction for the crime of an “environmental disaster” linked to date mussels.
“Attacking the ecosystem is not like selling drugs,” said Mariagiorgia De Gennaro, a lawyer for the maritime nonprofit Marrevivo, which is involved in the case.
“It’s a domino effect that has irreversible repercussions.”
Authorities are increasingly targeting every part of the chain, from fishermen to restaurant owners to consumers.
According to environmental organization Legambiente, Puglia seized 97 tons of illegal seafood last year, including date clams, most in Italy.
Most illegal fishing crimes take place in Sicily, Puglia and Campania.
Last month, a video went viral of a man hammering on a rock on a beach near Naples to extract the mollusks in front of sunbathers.
More often, the perpetrators – usually a diver, rescuer and lookout – operate at dusk or just before sunrise.
“It’s a niche market operated in absolute secrecy,” said police commander Gennari.
But the authorities cannot win the battle as long as there is a willing market of consumers.
“If you eat a plate of linguini with date clams, an entire square foot of ecosystem is destroyed,” Piraino said.
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