Steven Benjamin (my Cape Town guide and owner of Animal Ocean) and I returned from Dassen Island on Sunday, March 31st.  On Monday, Steve took me along on one of his dive charters to Duiker Island, home of a very friendly colony of Cape fur seals.

They were magic to dive with, but seals always make me feel like an absolute robot underwater.  After the dive, Steve took us snorkeling to a little rocky beach just beyond the point of Hout Bay Harbor, because he wanted to show us the site of an abalone poaching operations.  The picture below shows the pile of empty abalone shells we found there.

What happens is, abalone divers go outside the harbor in little rubber duck boats, collect the abalone and bring them to this beach, which is hidden from sight and around the point from Haut Bay slipway.  The poachers unload their illegally harvested abalone on the beach, stacked up in piles, before taking their now empty boats back to the slipways of Hout Bay Harbor, which are monitored for illegal abalone fishing.  Then the poachers hike over the point down to the beach, and carry the illegal harvest of abalone meat overland, thereby avoiding getting caught.  It’s quite a racket.