Perlemoen is in danger of extinction on our southern coast — and corrupt cops and fisheries inspectors aid and abet the pillage, writes Blaise Hopkinson THERE I was, having a post-prandial Sunday afternoon walk along the beautiful sea path at Vermont, past Brekvis Bay, towards a marine reserve with a woman of a certain age who calls that village home. She is of delicate disposition, so I did not remark that the sandy pathway was littered with broken condoms, neatly knotted. I just presumed this isolated spot was the scene of wild safe sex seaside orgies.But, to my shock and horror, my elegant perambulatory companion piped up: "Don’t worry about the condoms, they are not what you think they are."Said condoms, some of them two and three deep in their bundles, were not about sandy sex but about one of the massive blights on South African sea life — perlemoen (abalone) poaching. Turns out the poachers wrap their cellphones in one, two or, on a high day or a holiday, three condoms. Neatl...
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