R2m worth of abalone seized
2007-11-08 10:28
Johannesburg - A man and a woman were arrested while offloading perlemoen (abalone) worth an estimated R2m from a truck in Westonaria on Wednesday night, said West Rand police.
Captain Joseph Magoai said patrolling police saw a man offloading the perlemoen onto a bakkie which was pulled up alongside a fruit truck parked next to a garage.
They arrested the 43-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman and seized 31 compressed packages of perlemoen hidden among the truck's cargo of fruit.
The man and woman were both Capetonians.
Ten men were arrested and two tons of perlemoen - in the process of being cooked and dried - were seized on a smallholding in Falcon Ridge, Vereeniging, on Thursday.
The arrests follow the postponement last week of a ban on perlemoen harvesting.
Prompted by rapidly declining stocks, the ban was to have come into effect on Thursday, but was postponed at the last minute by Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk in the face of legal action.
Instead of banning perlemoen harvesting outright, Van Schalkwyk reduced the total allowable catch to 75 tonnes.
He also announced that the abalone fishery would close three months early and that the ban would come into effect on February 1.
"I remain of the view that the abalone resource is endangered due to ecological changes and poaching," he said.
The department would continue efforts to clamp down on poaching and investigate a diving ban in certain areas.
The South African Abalone Industry Association has, meanwhile, reiterated its intention to bring legal action over the ban.
It does not believe the restrictions address the issue of poaching.
- SAPA