By BRIDGET SCOTT
A 37-YEAR-old man from Hampton Park was apprehended by Mornington fisheries officers last weekend when he was found to have 16 times the legal limit of abalone.
A member of the public alerted officers as well as police when they saw a man acting suspiciously in a car alongside a road in Mornington on Saturday and then later found a bag of abalone in the bushes.
Following the tip-off, officers concealed themselves near the bag and waited for someone to collect it.
About 45 minutes later the car returned and a man checked on the bag then left.
He came back again some time later and once the traffic had passed he loaded the bag into his boot.
Fisheries officers then pounced and discovered 83 abalone in his car boot, 26 of which were undersize.
The haul as well as the man’s diving equipment was seized and he is due to be charged on summons for exceeding the abalone catch limit and taking and possessing undersize abalone.
An officer from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning said there were about 35 to 40 court cases of abalone theft plus hundreds of penalty infringements notices issued for minor offences each year in the Port Phillip area.
They also said there is believed to be a black market for abalone in Melbourne, “which is why we ask the public to report any suspicious or illegal fishing activity to 13 fish.”
“Abalone theft threatens the sustainability of the bay and opportunities for future generations of fishers,” they said.
