The traps that were confiscated are not cheap traps. I would value the traps...204 of them at over $30,000. That's a pretty substantial hit, and they were able to release all the crabs, alive.
Do these guys buy their traps? Everyone is always complaining about their gear being stolen, who do you think steals all these traps? I am sure that poachers wouldn't think twice about also stealing traps and the crabs in them.
If the poacher boat has radar, or even NVG, they won't get caught. They would have to be caught in the act of hauling the traps, actually, also deploying the traps, as well as then being tailed back to the launch, if they are trailering, without losing continuity, or the poacher getting wise and dumping the crabs... this calls for a massive amount of resources and manpower.
Good mission for a drone.
Why stop there, I say do like a drug bust you here about it take 3-4 weeks or months (it wouldn’t take that long as crab are perishable, but get the buyers of the crab also. They do this raid every year and get 200-300 traps every year so these guys are organized
