April 9, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf Coast Leadership Conference:
Gulf of Mexico fishermen are threatened by a daily wave of foreign illegal fishing vessels and the U.S. fishing industry is calling on Congress to take action, Florida business owners said April 8 at an event hosted by the Gulf Coast Leadership Conference.
Mexican fishing boats enter U.S. sovereign waters and illegally poach hundreds to thousands of fish at a time. Although the U.S. Coast Guard and Gulf state maritime law enforcement agencies have taken aggressive action to find and destroy these illegal Mexican vessels, the frequency of such incursions continues to escalate.
"Illegal fishing is a direct threat to the livelihoods of thousands of hardworking Americans along the Gulf coast and we must do more to protect our coastal economies, our coastal businesses, and our fishermen," said Congressman David Jolly (FL-13). He joined fishermen and coastal business representatives April 8 on a walking tour to discuss the economic impacts of illegal fishing on the historic John's Pass, Pinellas County as a whole, and its few remaining fishing businesses.
Commercial and recreational fisheries are an economic engine in the Gulf of Mexico, providing jobs, tourism, tax revenue and sustainable seafood. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Gulf of Mexico's commercial and recreational fishing industries support hundreds of thousands of jobs and contributed more than $30 billion annually to the region's economy in 2012. Florida's commercial fishing industry alone supported over 82,000 jobs, representing 51 percent of all Gulf-wide commercial fishing jobs, and generated $17 billion in sales.
Pinellas County, Florida is one of the Gulf's most important commercial and recreational fishing hubs, accounting for nearly two-thirds of U.S.-caught red grouper landings and almost half of all gag grouper landings. Over one-third of Gulf yellowedge and snowy grouper is processed in Pinellas.
John's Pass, in the city of Madeira Beach, Florida, has historically been one of Pinellas's key fishing ports. But today, operations have spread to other nearby locations and there is only one fish house left directly on the pass, Wild Seafood Company. Since purchasing Wild in 2011, Jason De La Cruz has grown his business into a staple of the community and reinvigorated a local industry. In order to remain economically viable, Wild Seafood and many other Pinellas County businesses need a reliable source of sustainable fish—red snapper and grouper, in particular.