The unfortunate flip side of having beautiful weather for the summer holidays is that it created ideal conditions for poachers in Nelson Mandela Bay to harvest more than 5,000 units of perlemoen illegally. Holidaymakers flocked to the beaches around Nelson Mandela Bay as the region enjoyed beautiful weather and calm seas for most of the festive season. Unfortunately, these conditions were also favoured by those stripping the coastline of its natural resources, and perlemoen poachers capitalised on the lovely weather in December to line their pockets.
And as we ushered in a new year, there seemed to be no slowing down, as the staggering figures shared by private security operatives indicate that poaching continues unabated, despite several arrests and large quantities of illegally harvested perlemoen being confiscated. While the full impact of these illegal coastal activities will probably never be known, the numbers linked to the 20km of shoreline under the watchful eye of Dark Water Ops is concerning. During December the private firm, contracted to patrol along the offshore perlemoen ranches between Cape Recife and Schoenmakerskop, recovered 5,200 units of perlemoen during routine monitoring and special operations, and more than 400 in the first week of January.
“But this is probably just a drop in the ocean as we cannot even begin to tally how much perlemoen is being stripped outside our region, and how much is slipping through the nets and making it onto the black market,” Dark Water Ops operations director Nicky Erasmus said. The bulk of the perlemoen recovered by the firm was found hidden along the shoreline – hidden by divers for “runners” to collect later. On 12 December, bags containing 720 units of the shellfish were recovered, and 17 days later another 857 units were recovered not far away.
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Erasmus said their operatives also assisted in the arrest of five suspects across four special operations over a three-week period. “The latest arrest came on January 2. Our operatives were monitoring suspicious activity between the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club and the Willows holiday resort when they noted the suspects load bags into the back of a Toyota Etios.
“We confronted the driver and upon searching his vehicle found 216 units of perlemoen. Police arrested the suspect and his vehicle was also confiscated,” Erasmus said. Apart from a few days of rain, Erasmus said clear skies, good weather and calm seas ironically created a “perfect storm” for poachers to flood the surf.
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