SLICK work following a pre-arranged plan of action led to the arrest of two gill net fish poachers at the Zululand Yacht Club on Wednesday evening.
The drama started when Allan Heydorn and crew members Dawie Swanepoel and Roland Rhode were returning from a fishing outing on his ski boat ‘Exciter’.
Entering the Mzingazi channel close to Pelican Island, they spotted the poachers’ skiff in the darkness.
‘My boat is big and ugly – dark brown in colour and has a military look about it, so they took off paddling furiously when they noticed we had seen them,’ said Allan.
Having been targeted by gill net poachers for the past three months, the Zululand Yacht Club have set up a cell phone network that includes the police, their security company, Ezemvelo and ZYC members.
Lines were soon buzzing and as Allan and his crew herded the skiff – which tried desperately to avoid capture until the super-fit rowers tired – a ‘welcome party’ had gathered at the slipway where SWAT Security effected the arrests of two young suspects, who were handed over to the SAPS Water Wing.
In the makeshift boat they found four gill nets, together lengthy enough to have captured many hundreds of fish.
Read the full story in the ZO Monday edition.
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