Mourad Arfaoui has dedicated his life to corals. In the small shop he has in Tabarka, Tunisia, the craftsman processes them and turns them into jewelry. For 20 years this occupation has provided a good life for him and his family. “Everyone puts their hand in the shop. Some work in the morning, others come in the afternoon” he says proudly. “We make all the jewelry entirely ourselves, from the raw material to the sale. My sons practically grew up in here.”

Arfaoui’s hometown, Tabarka, is located in northwestern Tunisia just 200 km from Sardinia. For centuries the small town’s almost exclusive occupation has been red corals. Nevertheless, due to lack of raw material, more and more local entrepreneurs are giving up. The prices divers ask for the few remaining corals are often prohibitive.

The craftsman also does not believe that his children will continue to practice the same profession. “At some point there won’t be any more coral here, they’ll just disappear.” The existing shortage has already affected the market due to the high prices that jewelery can fetch. Red coral, as it is called, is the skeleton of many small marine animals that are found at the bottom of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Locals also call them the “red trees” of the Mediterranean because of the important role they play in the local ecosystem.

Since ancient times, they have been a sought-after raw material for jewelry production in the region. Countless divers have died trying to spot them, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included them on the Red List of Threatened Species. For a long time the corals were caught with huge trawl nets, which completely wiped out the stocks in some places. Since the 1980s, however, this practice has been banned in most countries. In 2019 the Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) issued a series of guidelines to save the precious corals.

Illegal trade flourishes

Among other things, diving is only allowed at a depth greater than 50 meters. In Tunisia also only a few dozen licensed divers are allowed to catch precious corals, at least officially. Many businessmen in Tabarka, however, continue to report a thriving black market. The high selling prices of corals attract illegal fishing, but no one talks about it openly. A recent study funded by the European Union reports that coral worth millions of euros is smuggled out of the Mediterranean every year. North Africa and southern Italy are considered the most important hubs of the illegal business.

Salah Bzawi has been a coral diver for years, always legally as he claims. He explains that illegal fishing has always been a huge problem. Especially in neighboring Algeria in some places the corals have disappeared. Where they are called “blood of the red bull” a whole industry of illegal trade has developed. According to experts, every year about three tons of the precious red stone, worth several millions, are smuggled out of Algeria.

From there, through Tunisia, they are sent to other places. High demand exists in Southern Europe and Asia. On the other side of the Mediterranean is Torre del Greco, an Italian city in the province of Naples. It is considered the unofficial world capital of the coral trade. Here there are many companies that produce high-quality jewelry from precious corals. In contrast to Tabarka, the selling prices are considerably more economical. Top international brands such as Gucci and Bulgari source coral from this small town. In this way these precious stones came back into fashion.

The future of the coral is uncertain

However, even in Torre del Greco few are talking openly about the booming black market for precious coral. Miko Cataldo has been running a coral business for many generations. Cataldo openly refers to the problems they face. “We struggle every day against the problem of illegal trade.” Cataldo says he received threats from smugglers even in his shop as he dared to take action against them. Italy, in the context of strengthening sustainability, developed a national plan for the better protection of marine life. Nevertheless, at the altar of profit, traders are always finding new ways to smuggle goods, he explains.

Artisan Arfawi is not at all worried about his own future, but mostly about the future of the precious corals. The cause of illegal trade, as he states, is none other than financial greed. “Corals, like many other species, are threatened because we don’t give them time to grow. We have forgotten how to be patient and appreciate the richness of the sea.”