Western Cape officials seize abalone (perlemoen) worth R65 000

Table Mountain National Park staff seized 279 perlemoen worth R65 000 from a commercial perlemoen operator who had violated his permit conditions.

This is the biggest perlemoen haul the park has taken since it started managing the marine component of the park last year.

Robin Adams, operations manager for the marine protected area of the park, said on Wednesday they had caught the operator when he landed his catch at Buffelsbaai, in the Cape of Good Hope section of the national park, which was not an authorised slipway.

"A commercial guy must land his catch at an authorised slipway where he has to call an inspector to monitor the number he has caught.

There is no one to do this at Buffelsbaai. The reason is that if people land their catches there, and then drive to an authorised slipway to record their catch, they could get rid of half of it on the way."

Other violations were that the diver on board was not the diver listed on the permit, nor was there a representative on board of the company to which the perlemoen quota was registered.

The diver was fined R2 500 and a charge has been laid against the company that holds the quota.

Source: www.iol.co.za