South Africa has lost control of what could be a billion-rand fishery because of poaching. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which hosted an abalone indaba in Cape Town, said the country's abalone resource was on the brink of disaster.Not only was poaching out of control - at a near all-time high of 2 000t a year - but poachers were poaching even themselves out of business, experts said yesterday. They often operated at night, using high-tech gear, and relied on smaller abalone due to dwindling wild stocks, prompting fears the resource may soon face collapse.Among the poaching hot spots is Robben Island.In two of the main abalone zones the stock has declined to below the minimum needed to sustain the population, according to the World Wildlife Fund.Desperate poachers - also under pressure due to declining abalone prices in the East - are widening their areas of operation and in some cases are colluding with coastal communities."Some of these people can be very brutal - they can be killers," said the department's head of monitoring and surveillance, Ceba Mtoba, who stressed the need for better law enforcement and stiffer penalties.Figures presented yesterday revealed the financial implications of the abalone crisis: the legal total allowable catch of 96t a year represents only between 3% and 5% of the total catch. By extrapolation, the loss to the national fiscus in taxes and levies amounts to about R180-million - and up to 4 000 jobs are lost...