Suspected abalone poachers caught after pursuit on jetty

Two men were apprehended and cited for the unlawful take and possession of abalone last Saturday after a brief pursuit on a Southern California jetty.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife officer and Long Beach Police Department officer, on joint nighttime patrol, became suspicious when they spotted silhouettes of the men on a Long Beach Harbor jetty.

The CDFW officer was dropped from a boat onto the jetty and approached the men, who began to run, according to an agency news release issued Thursday.

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With the help of a police air unit, the unidentified men were found hiding in the rocks and in possession of 16 green and pink abalone. The Los Angeles Port Police also assisted in the effort.

“This is a perfect example of  mutual aid cooperation allowing us to create a force multiplier in order to protect our precious resources,” said David Bess, CDFW Deputy Director and Chief of the Law Enforcement Division. “This joint patrol effort allowed us to apprehend these suspected poachers who were targeting abalone, a protected species south of the Golden Gate for more than 23 years.”

Abalone have been protected south of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge since 1997, after a near collapse of the population. A statewide ban was imposed in 2017 because of the continued decline of red abalone “mostly due to environmental stressors,” the CDFW stated.

The men were cited for 16 counts related to the unlawful take of protected wildlife. The abalone, still alive and deemed “survivable,” were placed back into the ocean.

–Image showing the seized abalone is courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife