In a tiny cove in Betty's Bay marine reserve, dozens of fresh perlemoen shells lay scattered on the sand, only their unpalatable innards left clinging to their shells after poachers had hacked away their valuable flesh.
Just a few hours ago, these slow-growing creatures were alive, but like millions of others around our coast, they were hacked off the rocks by poachers' knives, levers and screwdrivers.
The poachers have cleaned out most of the perlemoen close to shore in the marine reserve, a four-kilometre stretch of coastline on the southern Cape coast. They now operate from boats where they dive down to those on the deeper reefs.
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It takes about eight to 10 years for a perlemoen to reach sexual maturity. Many are poached before they've had a chance to breed.
'The whole coastline is under poaching pressure' Marcel Kroese, assistant director of monitoring and surveillance for Marine and Coastal Management, said on Wednesday his estimates were that about two million perlemoen were poached in South Africa in the past year. The perlemoen have already been cleaned out at Hawston and the stocks in Betty's Bay marine reserve are now under severe pressure.
"The whole coastline is under poaching pressure. It's everywhere. The poachers are highly mobile and they have good intelligence. There's nothing left in Hawston and we've found no juvenile abalone anywhere from Hawston to Betty's Bay, so that means there's no recruitment of new stocks.
"Poaching not only affects the environment, but the economy, the community and tourism. These poachers hurl abuse at people, who don't want to go to those areas," Kroese said.
There were four Marine and Coastal Management inspectors in Gordon's Bay, four in Hermanus and three in Gansbaai but there was "a hole" in law enforcement in Betty's Bay.
"We do have a boat that patrols, but the poachers just throw their catch overboard when they see us coming and there is nothing we can do," Kroese said.
'The police often have to fire shots and sometimes poachers fire back'
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