Organised poaching gangs threaten survival of key species

Organised criminal gangs represent the biggest current threat to Cayman’s marine life, conservation officers believe.

Sophisticated poachers, working in teams, are wiping out conch beds and threatening lobster populations. 

And rogue local restaurants – willing to buy black market seafood – are playing a major role in a growing problem.

Department of Environment chief conservation officer Mark Orr warned that the actions of organised groups with deliberate criminal intent risked damaging the long-term sustainability of key species.

Occasionally, the DoE catches poachers in the act and pictures of trucks loaded with hundreds of conch and lobster are splashed on social media and in the newspaper.

While those victories are meaningful, Orr sees the flip side. The images demonstrate the scale of the damage being done.

He said it was “obvious” that his small team could not catch everyone and he worries about the impact of the ‘ones that get away’.

Orr said the problem had got worse in the aftermath of COVID-19 and he acknowledged a relatively small number of poachers were motivated by hunger or poverty. But he insisted they are the minority.

“The persons that are out there deliberately taking large numbers (of conch and lobster) are definitely the main threat,” he said.

DoE teams under surveillance

Orr believes ‘land teams’ are trailing his officers and communicating with poaching boats to help them evade detection.

The veteran officer, who has been on the job for 23 years, said the sophistication of poaching gangs has escalated in recent years. He said the majority of poachers used to be solo operators, often drug-users trying to support a habit.

“These days, we have a lot more teams of persons actually doing it as a profession. They are hurting the island even more because when they wipe out an area of 100 or 150 conch, they are taking out an entire breeding bed.”

Clearing conch on that scale means there is virtually no chance for the populations to regenerate, he said.

The DoE has a team of eight to 10 conservation officers tasked with policing Cayman’s marine parks and terrestrial zones. But their jobs have been made far more complex by the increase in organised criminal activity on the waters.

“We have groups that will follow our officers around with a vehicle. If they see I’m watching one of the boats out there, they’ll give them a call, and the boat drops everything,” he said.

“Before they get close enough for us to get a good look at what it is, they come to shore with a smile on their face.”

Warning to Cayman’s rogue restaurants

He said new staff were expected soon and increasing partnerships with the Coast Guard and the police are anticipated to help. Orr added that the majority of boat users and anglers were law-abiding and were a huge help to his officers in reporting criminality.

“It’s a hard job and a big job for a handful of people. The public is a big help. We need eyes and ears everywhere to see this happening.”

He acknowledged more ‘intelligence led’ operations and a larger, more sophisticated team, utilising technology including surveillance drones, may be called for in future. He cautioned that restaurateurs who buy from poachers are also breaking the law.

“As long as people keep buying them in large numbers, we’re never gonna turn it around.”

Restaurants are not allowed to buy more than three lobster or five conch on any given day during season – December to February for lobster and November to May for conch. Outside of those months, both species are off limits.

“Our shelf area is very small. We can’t support commercial fishing here, we just can’t,” he said.

“If we allowed all the restaurants on island to sustain their menu with conch and lobster here, it would only be a few years and we wouldn’t have anything left.”