Original subtitles

I've been to South Africa before,

but I'd never seen it the way I saw it with these --

with these Rastas.

That day changed me.

Pass me the bucket. I can help.

Pass me the bucket.

♪♪

Abalone is part of their culture.

How can they not be allowed to fish that?

Williams: Drug selling not an option, right?

It's a well-thought-out, well-organized operation.

I mean, well organized [bleep] operation, man.

You got in the boat again? You got in the boat again?

But these men are just a small part of smuggling network

that stretches halfway around the world.

[ Door creaks open ]

Our goal is just to simply show the world a window

as to why people do the things they do,

where that desperation comes from.

♪♪

It's like they say, "When the system fails you,

you create your own system."

[ People singing in native language ]

[ Dog barks in distance ]

Cape Town, South Africa --

how it be.

[ Barking ]

On my way to meet Angelo,

one of the neighborhood residents

who poaches for a living.

Blessings!

Man: Rastafari.

What's up? What's up? Big love! Big love!

-Respect, brother. -Love to you, man.

Love, love. Respect, man.

Love. Love. Love. Love.

Love. Love.

Love -- that's all I can say, man.

It's beautiful.

I've never seen such beauty, man.

Much younger?

Actually, this is -- this is, um...

Like -- ...this is makeup.

[ Laughter ]

Man.

We in Cape Town, I know that.

So, this area is called Hout Bay, yeah?

And you guys -- born and raised here?

This is a fishing community, am I correct?

Man: Yeah. Yeah.

And there was a time where you weren't allowed

to go in your backyard, on your beach.

What was that like?

Oh...

What happened to -- to your livelihood when you --

when they closed the beach, and you were not allowed

to go to the water to fish?

♪♪

Williams: If Malibu and Hamptons had a baby, it would be Hout Bay.

On one side of the mountains is -- you see the mansions,

and on the other side is the shantytown,

where most of this -- the community are colors.

Now, is the community poor?

[Bleep] yeah.

Their life and their culture

is to fish from 6, 7 years old, 10 years old.

You know how to jump in that water

and catch fish with your bare hands if need be.

You see, but the problem is that environmental regulations

that are supposed to protect the sea life

have made it almost impossible to make a living legally.

Angelo: Let me tell you...

Right?

Why is it illegal for you guys to make a living at fishing?

Is it because th--

Ah.

Lolli: So, the government --

First of all, some of the fishermen,

because of illiteracy, don't even understand the process,

and they -- even if they did, most likely,

they wouldn't even have the money to pay for the process.

Williams: What they're telling me is that --

that the fact that they're being denied permits

to fish legally is part of the plan to drive them out

so they can gentrify the area.

Angelo said that the police came in

and accused the community of being squatters.

[ Crowd chanting ]

The community rose up.

These roadblocks you see right here

are right in front of Angelo's block.

[ Gunshots ]

You were shot seven times?

[ Crowd shouting ]

Williams: Every day for them to go to work,

they are literally breaking the law.

They risk drowning, getting caught by the police,

eaten by sharks.

You know, they're diving 40 feet with minimal gear.

Man: 13 years old.

I mean, I can show you more.

All drowned. All drowned.

Just trying to fish?

Food on the table.

♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-About to dive right now? -Yeah.

But there's still a chance that the police

can still run up on us, though, right?

[ Laughter ]

Man: We just do our thing. We just do our thing, man.

♪♪

Right now, my brothers are swimming out

to go meet the boat.

They're 15 black men

in scuba gear getting on a boat out here.

That would be suspicious,

and there would probably be arrested,

so they have to go stealth mode, swim out about 20, 50 yards

and meet the boat out there.

So right now we're about to go around the other side

and get on the boat that's waiting for them,

and we gonna go fishing.

As a result of more fishermen turning to poaching,

the police launched a campaign to crack down on them.

I've been working fisheries law enforcement

for a number of years.

You're not allowed to harvest

any marine species from this area.

This is a patrol vessel from

the Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries,

and they're doing a visible patrol.

So, we're such a big vessel and it's highly visible.

The guys know when the patrols are coming.

It's like the Wild West, you know?

Here we got 10 boats.

We got two or three police boats moving around.

The guys are shooting at the engines,

and -- and it gets pretty rough.

There's no one in the community that will say

that a marine protected area is not important for conservation.

The problem is very little discussion

with the local communities was done.

That has spurred our community to be involved in poaching.

Williams: The penalty for poaching can range from fines

to confiscating their boats, even jail time.

These fishermen,

they feel like they -- they don't have another way.

Williams: Has it always been to fish or for other purposes?

Only for fish? Poaching, yeah.

Ralphie: Because I've been...

Williams: Abalone is like a giant sea snail, it's --

T-The kind that's found off the coast

of South Africa and Hout Bay

is considered to be some of the largest in the world.

Y-You go down there with, like, a crowbar.

You have to break the abalone off of a rock.

Just straight up thuggin'.

Fortunately, poaching is not the only way to get abalone.

♪♪

With the demand so high and money to be made,

companies started farming on their own.

To me, farming is the best way

for the community to legally fish,

but it takes deep pockets.

The process of farming is pretty simple,

and it's very much the same on all of the farms.

We have water that's pumped to shore, fed to all of the tanks.

Once there, it's a very simple process of feeding, cleaning.

Williams: Abagold runs the largest abalone farm

in South Africa.

350 employees work here.

Average salary's about $300 a month.

We do have a big problem with employment in South Africa.

There's no way to really stop our poverty that we have here.

The biggest problem is that they're gonna be making

more money poaching abalone

than going in to working hard on a farm every day.

Williams: Poachers could basically make more money

in a day poaching than working in a farm in a month.

The sad part about it is, you know,

poaching is destroying the sea bed.

Every time they dive,

they're literally driving the species into extinction.

Today, the South African abalone population

is estimated to be less than 5% of its original levels.

You could see the circle spots on the rocks.

That's where the abalone used to be.

And just -- Like, they're all over the place.

♪♪

Serge Raemaekers is an environmental scientist.

He studies abalone poaching.

There's a lot abalone here.

There's a lot of -- a lot of money lying -- lying here.

Relatively good estimates of the illegal fish river

are 2,000 to 3,000, maybe even 4,000 ton

of abalone being exported out of the country.

This is the biggest wildlife trade in Africa.

The fishermen who really started getting some money out of this,

um, they're not gonna stop.

We're heading towards a social disaster.

The signs are there already, and it's only getting worse.

Right now, we're in about 40- to 50-feet deep water.

My brothers are in the water right now diving for abalone,

and we're watching them fish.

We're watching them go to work, basically.

Unfortunately, we're also watching them break the law.

[ Chuckles ]

So, my brother Angelo was telling me about the brothers

that died in this water -- Yeah, that drowned.

Was it out -- right around these areas?

Yeah. I want to see that, man.

Yeah. Say a little prayer for them brothers, man.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Williams: We had to cut the trip short because

a lookout gave the skipper a call

and alerted us that we could be seen by the police.

So we had to get out of Dodge.

I think the boys is out here, bro,

and we got a boat full of illegal fish.

We then have to go and dump all the abalone

off into another boat.

We dirty now, as they say in the street.

Get on! Get on! Get on!

Man: All right.

These young brothers are shucking them,

placing them in another bag to give to another brother

who then sells it to the highest bidder.

I think we should name him "Louie."

-Yeah. [ Chuckles ]

Is he still alive?

Can I throw him back in the water? No, right?

[ Laughs ] No?

This way now?

♪♪

♪ One, two ♪

Williams: Yes, sir.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[ Laughs ]

-Does it at least get easier? -Unh-unh.

Williams: A hike over the mountain,

that was nothing short of spiritual for me.

The sea, the sun, the mountains, the camaraderie.

When we got down and started to walk through the community,

everybody was like just cheering us on.

[ Speaks indistinctly ]

It didn't hit me till halfway

that the reason why people were cheering us on

was because it was confirmation that we weren't shark food

and we didn't get arrested.

Cheers, my friends! Cheers!

♪♪

What's that -- What is that in pounds?

[ Lolli speaking indistinctly ]

Williams: Yo. Angelo, so what's up?

What are you all doing right now?

Williams: They bring the shucked abalone back to the house

and weigh it out.

The middleman usually comes and does the weighing there.

The total catch is worth about $1,600.

Man: Now...

And -- Okay, now, how do you --

How does that money get split up?

Who gets -- Who gets the cut,

and how much does each person get?

Yes, sir. You want a calculator?

-Mm-hmm. -Here.

Uh-huh.

Williams: Angelo will split that cash

based on how much each guy caught.

-There it is. -Uh-huh.

Williams: Yes. The best diver gets $300.

The worst, about $60.

Abalone farm workers make about $75 a week.

Where does this go next?

The buyer's business. Yeah.

[ Men singing in native language ]

Angelo's crew, they're just a small part

of smuggling network

that stretches halfway around the world.

[ Singing continues ]

[ People singing in native language ]

[ Indistinct conversation ]

Williams: These roots, man, these -- these fishermen,

I believe they were all just pawns

for a bigger -- a bigger chess game.

In talking with Angelo, I found out that

the abalone that they poach is

an expensive delicacy thousands of miles away.

So I wanted to find out where was it going,

and how did it get there?

So I met up with this former poacher.

What happens to the fish?

I saw the process of getting it out of the water,

taking it back the community, you weigh it,

and then you give it to a broker or an agent if you were a --

-He -- He's more of a middleman. -Middleman.

He's -- He's another pawn in the game, yeah.

Yeah, that's what it precedes -- A pawn, exactly.

So what is the main route that is taken

to get the fish out of the country?

Inevitably, they'll end up at a dry house,

and it becomes 1/3 smaller and a lot lighter.

If it's dry, the options are endless.

Yes. It's like moving weed across border.

You can get carries to carry it by plane, by ship.

There is a direct parallel to the states,

except in-- instead of fish, it's drugs.

It's a cat-and-mouse game.

Williams: And the number one destination

for that poached wild abalone

is Hong Kong.

It's imported illegally by Chinese gangsters.

Abalone has been a delicacy here for centuries.

It's a sign of wealth and power.

In restaurants, it goes for up to $500 just for one piece.

That's 20 to 50 times

what the poachers back in Hout Bay sell it for.

♪♪

Because...

[ Chuckles ]

Woman: We eat?

Williams: Angelo, man, I just want to say thank you, man,

you know, for letting me experience a day in your life.

You know, I mean, this is, um --

I don't know about y'all, but I don't take this for granted.

I'm a first-generation island boy.

My mom's from the Bahamas and,

you know, and it's all about culture.

It's all about family. It's all about breaking bread.

It's all about the sea, you know?

And I just want to say thank you, brother, for your time.

And bless her, you know what I mean?

Yes.

[ Conversing native language ]

Williams: Angelo's planning on starting a community fish farm.

So...

Williams: Angelo said he would need somewhere

to the tune of $150,000 to $200,000.

That's a lot of [bleep] money if you live in South Africa.

It's a poor man's community,

and I think there are some people

that may have bigger visions for this area.

I said, "So, um, just -- Angelo,"

I says, "It looks like, you know,

they're coming for this -- this area.

Let's face it, gentrification is upon you, you know?"

I says, "Um, and when they come for something,

they usually get it.

What are you gonna do when they come for you?"

Like, "Where are you going?"

And he looked at me, and he says,

"Mike, we born here, we die here."