This project examines the South Africa-China abalone trade as a dynamic field of human-marine relationships, exploring how abalone is understood simultaneously as luxury seafood, local livelihood and endangered species across different ecological, legal and cultural contexts. Through ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa and China, the research combines participant observation, interviews, archival research and digital story mapping to examine how farmers, fishers, traders, conservation practitioners, chefs and consumers negotiate competing values surrounding abalone. The project aims to show how conservation regimes and market demand are co-produced, contributing to research in political ecology and multispecies anthropology on South-South environmental exchange.