Rangers haul dumped perlemoen ashore
Source: Independent Online ()
Marine rangers have retrieved almost 500kg of perlemoen that poachers had dumped on the ocean floor off Robben Island.
Marine rangers from the Table Mountain National Park collected the four large bags which were lying about 800m from the Robben Island shoreline, after a tip off from a commercial perlemoen fisher.
Table Mountain National Park operations manager Robin Adams said: “Several commercial divers diving at Robben Island called to tell us that they found the bags lying on the bottom of the ocean, about 800m from the shore.”
His said the poachers might have been scared off by a patrol, or that the poachers thought it was too risky to bring the collection ashore.
“The guys that dived this suffered a loss because they had to pay divers, fuel, and accommodation.
But the reward would have been very big if they had got away with it.”
He said most large perlemoen ended up leaving the country.
The perlemoen, would have retailed for up to R200 000 locally and could sell for up to R1million internationally, depending on who it was sold to.
Analysing the perlemoen after retrieval the rangers noted that the beaks were still pink and the guts were still there, which indicated that it was still fresh and that the poach may have taken place as recently as Wednesday night.
The retrieval follows several other busts in recent weeks.
In Kommetjie on Thursday, marine rangers in conjunction with the water wing of the police arrested two suspected crayfish poachers and recovered 160 undersized crayfish. A boat was also confiscated.
And in Ocean View police and rangers arrested a Grassy Park man and confiscated 100 crayfish tails that he had allegedly bought for R600.
Earlier this week five men were arrested more than 35 000 poached perlemoen seized when officials raided an illegal perlemoen processing warehouse near …