It’s a big business in California.

Poachers steal an estimated $100 million worth of wild animals and fish every year in the state. Many of the thieves are repeat offenders, according to California Fish and Wildlife officials.

It is illegal to sell wild fish or animals in California, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said poachers can’t resist the cash they can make on the black market.

“It’s all about personal profit. This is not about feeding himself or his family. It’s about personal profit,” Fish and Wildlife Officer Patrick Foy said. He took News10 on a hunt for poachers in the wee hours of the morning. Using night vision technology, he scanned the American River outside the gates of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery for salmon poachers.

It’s not just salmon, though.

Divers poach an estimated 250,000 Abalone every year on California’s coast. The value of that many abalone is estimated at $25 million.

Another expensive delicacy is poached from the Sacramento River Delta, where where one female sturgeon can hold a belly full of eggs worth more than $30,000. Processed sturgeon eggs have been compared to Beluga; the most expensive type of caviar.

“These guys are getting $80 to $100 an ounce,” Foy said. “That’s a lot of money, and if you look at the amount of eggs a single female fish can produce you are talking about a huge lucrative market and an incentive to poach sturgeon.”

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