Two men have allegedly been caught with 56 times the legal limit of abalone in Victoria.
Fisheries enforcement officers pounced on two men in Ventnor on Phillip Island last night.
In total, 280 abalone were allegedly snatched just off the island’s coastline.
Witness Kelly Ward said she saw “buckets and bags and next thing there was a tonne of abalone on the ground”.
Enforcement officers managed to corner the men at the dead end of Gap Road.
The normal bag limit for abalone is five but it will be alleged in court, the men took 56 times that amount.
Much of the loot was undersized and none of it survived to be returned to the water.
Local fishers say this kind of alleged poaching isn’t rare.
“These officers are really, really crucial to not just our operation and our business but also to the environment around here,” local fisher Wolfgang Putzner said.
The officers behind this bust are just weeks away from potentially losing their jobs, along with more than 30 of their colleagues, as part of a state government restructuring of Fisheries Victoria.
“They are ripping the guts out of fisheries purely because they can’t manage money,” Victoria’s Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Groth said.
The state government says it hasn’t made a decision yet on whether the job losses will happen, but if they do, it insists a new unit will be set up with extra resources.
The Phillip Island office is one of those that would close if the cuts go ahead.
