Port Elizabeth - Two men will serve three years behind bars for unlawful possession of perlemoen (abalone) and running an illegal fish processing operation, the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries department (DAFF) said on Monday.
This was the first direct prison sentence handed down under the Marine Living Resources Act, DAFF director of communication services Lionel Adendorf said in a statement.
Huang Zhanyang and Pow Kekun were sentenced by the Port Elizabeth Regional Court on Monday morning.
“They were found guilty of operating an illegal fish processing establishment and the unlawful possession of abalone last Tuesday,” Adendorf said.
The case against a third man, Brett Killian, was postponed to March as he intended pleading not guilty.
“(The men) were arrested in August this year in the biggest abalone bust in the Eastern Cape, when 37 356 units of abalone (around six tons) were confiscated on a farm in the Grassridge-area near Motherwell,” Adendorf said.
“The DAFF is certain that this sentence will serve as a major deterrent to anyone who is currently involved in the illegal harvesting, transporting, processing, and exporting of our valuable and exploited marine resources,” he said.
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