They fish for them at all hours of the night. Equipped with rakes but also with diving suits, air tanks and fins, they exploited the darkness to escape the controls of the Coast Guard and other police forces who try to stem the phenomenon of sea urchin poaching along the Tyrrhenian coast. A reproductive area that extends southwards from Porto Clementino to the north of Civitavecchia, up to the borders with the municipality of Ladispoli, also involving Santa Marinella and Santa Severa.
The data provided by the Port Authority highlights the serious risks that threaten the reproduction of the sea urchin on the coast north of Rome
The illegal trade in echinoderms has become a business that has crossed national borders because these molluscs, which prefer areas rich in rocks and microorganisms to feed on, as well as being very tasty, also have many nutritional properties. But they reproduce and grow slowly. Collection activities are complex and they generate stratospheric profits considering that their price can reach 40 euros per kilogram.
And the sea urchins that grow on the Lazio coast are among the best on the market because the shallow waters favor high-quality production. For this reason, for some time, local colonies of echinoderms have attracted the attention of the Apulian organized crime which uses penniless poachers who, in addition to the seizure of the equipment, risk little because illegal activities are punished with administrative sanctions that are easily circumvented by those who do not own assets that can be attacked.
The cry of alarm on the expansion of poaching, an illegal activity capable of generating money flows amounting to millions of euros, was launched by the Commander of the Port Authority Salvatore Marchese, Operation Service Chief for the environment and coastal defence, during a conference entitled “Sea urchin between delicacy and extinction” organized by Slow Food Sea Urchin Community of Santa Marinella and Civitavecchia which, together with Cibo Futuro, will host a festival dedicated to this highly prized mollusc starting from tomorrow 2 May and until next Sunday 5 May (read here).
A threatened species that is tempted by incursions carried out by poachers coming mainly from the south, including Calabria and Sicily, where the consumption of these seafood is particularly widespread.
The matter is regulated by the Ministerial Decree of 12 January 1995 on the regulation of sea urchin fishing which allows harvesting during all months of the year except the months of May and June.
The rules governing fishing and the increase in poaching on the coast north of Rome
Withdrawal activity can be carried out both by professional fishermen within a maximum limit of 1000 specimens and by those who practice sport fishing with a ceiling that cannot exceed 50 units. Harvesting can be done only by immersion or manually with a mirror rod and a rake.
It is enough to compare the limits imposed by government regulation to realize the dimensions reached by fraud activities.
In 2019 the Coast Guard seized 16,750 specimens still alive and viable and thrown back into the sea in addition to the simultaneous seizure of illegally used equipment. Fins, masks, wetsuits and air tanks and the application of fines amounting to 44 thousand euros. Last year, the number of sea urchins recovered soared to 24,000 with fines reaching 35,000 euros but despite a lower number of interventions to control and prevent poaching. Added to these data are the seizures made by the high police forces which increased from 2250 specimens in 2019 to 24 thousand in 2023.
Beyond the criminal aspect, what must be taken into consideration from the point of view of environmental balance is the slowness with which the colonies of urchins reproduce and the length of the growth period of the echinoderm which takes approximately 4/5 years to reach a size useful for guaranteeing commercial exploitation of approximately 6/9 centimetres.
The crackdown by the judiciary to protect the marine ecosystem from predatory activities
The judiciary has recently become aware of the danger of predatory behavior which threatens not only the extinction of the species in some areas of the Peninsula but the very balance of the marine ecosystem.
The Constitutional Court with the recent sentence n. 16/2024 has, in fact, established that it is the three-year ban on sea urchin fishing in Puglia is legitimate, while the third section of the Criminal Court of Cassation with sentence no. 41602 of 13 October established that a deterioration or compromise of the marine environment perpetrated through indiscriminate fishing of sea urchins over a long period they can be punished with the sanctions imposed by article 452 bis of the penal code against those who cause environmental pollution. Offense which is subject to a prison sentence of between two and six years and a fine of between 10 thousand and 100 thousand euros.
“We are very satisfied with what emerged from a conference which ranged from the description of the risks of poaching to the contribution offered by those who study the risks of extinction of these molluscs such as Maissa Gharbi of the General Fisheries Commission of the Mediterranean of the FAO, Sergio Scanu, of the UniTuscia Oceanology Laboratory , Simone Marzeddu and Luca Muzzioli of the ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome, expanding the horizon of knowledge to protect this very delicate species and we hope to repeat the initiative next year” underlined Angelo Fanton, spokesperson for the Sea Urchin Community.
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