Cape Town’s marine and environmental law enforcement unit apprehended four suspected poachers in a marine protected area near Llandudno on Friday.

The city council mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, said the same unit impounded the same rubber duck a few months earlier in another anti-poaching operation.

Smith said he joined the unit on a patrol of poaching hotspots. “As we approached the area before Llandudno, we spotted a vessel that we wanted to approach to check the papers of. That vessel started to flee and law enforcement was able to pursue.”

After a high-speed chase, the wetsuited crew of the boat ran the vessel over rocks on the shoreline and attempted to flee up the mountainside.

 “All the time we could see them throwing the poached goods overboard as they went,” Smith said.

The four alleged poachers were arrested and handed over to the police. Smith said the marine unit recovered the beached vessel.

“What is of concern is that this is the second time that law enforcement alone has impounded this particular vessel,” said Smith.

“One has to raise some serious questions about what is going on here, about how they are able to continue to recover their vessels to continue breaking the law.”

TimesLIVE