Durban - Five men were arrested in a sting operation with 576 East Coast rock lobsters in Westville on Thursday.
A reliable source said the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department had received a tip that a bakkie had been heading to the Westville Pavilion shopping mall with a consignment of lobsters. A team from the department and the police intercepted the bakkie in the mall parking lot.
The source said five men including the driver, of Chatsworth, were taken in for questioning and charged. The lobsters were found concealed in a fridge at the back of the bakkie under a canopy.
The source said the lobsters were believed to have been bought from fishermen in Coffee Bay, a beach near Port St Johns. A police source believes they were going to meet a buyer at the Pavilion.
Many of the lobsters were under the legal size limit of 65mm.
The men were charged with possession of rock lobster without a valid permit.
According to the source, the beaches around Coffee Bay are not accessible by vehicles because of the terrain. Poachers with bakkies and 4X4 vehicles take advantage of the remote area and lack of law enforcement to launch boats down the Eastern Cape coastline. The lobsters are then sold to local residents who resell them on the roadside. Officials said poaching in the area is uncontrollable.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said the suspects were aged from 19 to 51 were found in possession of 575 East Coast rock lobsters. They are expected to appear today in court soon.
DAFF Regulations for fishing of East Coast rock lobster (Panulirus homarus):
Closed season: November 1 to the last day of February of the following year, both dates inclusive.
Minimum size: 65 mm - measured in a straight line from the point where the tail meets the body to the notch between the supra-orbital spines (spines above the eyes).
- No person may collect more than eight East Coast rock lobster per day.
- No person may be in possession of or transport more than eight East Coast rock lobster at any time.
- No person shall engage in fishing, collecting or disturbing East Coast rock lobster with the use of a vessel.
- No person shall engage in fishing, collecting or disturbing any East Coast rock lobster with a trap other than a flat circular trap with no sides and the diameter of which does not exceed 30 cm or by means of baited hooks.