Marine Anti-Poaching Unit reports to you with an exhausted, but satisfied team.

Our successes started early today as our first point of call was to spend some time in Hangklip.

Barely 10 min and we are greeted with a vehicle clearly loaded with divers. We graciously escorted them out of the area, not to be seen again.

The aim for Marine Anti-Poaching Unit is to prevent the illegal extraction of our Marine life and we are seeing more and more success daily.

Today Marine Anti-Poaching Unit with the support of Sea Watch was able to ensure that the poachers left without their catch.

Early morning Sea Watch noticed the divers and flagged it with us.  We reached out to MCM as the divers were leaving and the vehicle was stopped for a routine search. No abalone was found in the vehicle.

The vehicle was hidden in an enclosed driveway, thus again we call on all home owners to ensure that driveways are secured. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/driveway-security-marine-anti-poaching-unit ) 

Knowing that abalone was extracted, Marine Anti-Poaching Unit and Sea Watch went by foot and searched the area for the stock and yes, we found it. We made contact with Sea Fisheries to collect and all live abalone was released back into the ocean.

We thought at this point that it would be safe to take a break and get some lunch, but within minutes we were notified of poachers back in the water in Betty’s Bay.

In total 6 divers were spotted and we kept tracking them until they exited the water.

We were only two people and unfortunately the group split and we were not able to pin them down due to the various exit routes in Bettys Bay.

Today our success rate was 75% and we would have made a 100% if we only had more volunteers.

We are loving our success and want you to share the feeling of satisfaction when prevention is truly better than cure.

Join our environmental fight in whatever capacity you can offer. Every little bit helps.