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Fishing application officers pounced on two men in Ventnor on Phillip Island last night.
In total, 280 Abalone were supposedly taken away right on the coast of the island.
Witness Kelly Ward said he saw “cubes and bags and the next thing there was a ton of abalone on the ground.”
The agents of the law managed to corner men in the dead end of Gap Road.
The normal limit of the Bag for Abalone is five, but will be alleged in court, men took that amount 56 times.
Much of the loot was large and none of that survived to be returned to the water.
Local fishermen say that this type of alleged poaching is not uncommon.
“These officers are very, very crucial not only for our operation and our business, but also for the environment around here,” said local Fisher Wolfgang Putzner.
The officers behind this bust are just weeks after potentially losing their jobs, along with more than 30 of their colleagues, as part of a restructuring of the state government of Victoria Fishing.
“They are starting the gills of fishing purely because they cannot handle money,” said Victoria’s opposition vice president Sam Groth.
The state government says that it has not yet made a decision on whether employment losses will occur, but if they do, it insists that a new unit will be established with additional resources.
The Phillip Island office is one of those that would close if the cuts continue.
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