July 28, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance:
The Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance (Shareholders’ Alliance) and the commercial fishermen and women we represent are strong advocates for sustainable management of our marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico. We believe that healthy fish populations bring stable fishing businesses, profitable fishing communities, and a stable source of sustainable, domestically-harvested seafood that Americans consumer deserve to enjoy.
The Gulf’s red snapper population continues to rebound thanks to a sustainable commercial management plan. Quotas are increasing for everyone, red snapper are getting larger, and are being caught more easily by many fishermen from Texas to Florida. Unfortunately, this rebound brings with it a new threat – the poaching of red snapper and other reef fish my Mexican fishermen illegally fishing in US waters.
“Mexican nationals routinely and illegally enter U.S. sovereign waters off the coast of Texas and other Gulf states to steal the fish we’ve worked hard to rebuild,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, commercial fisherman and owner of Katie’s Seafood Market in Galveston, Texas. According to U.S. Coast Guard data more than 1,100 illegal fishing operations happen each year, harvesting three- quarters-of-a-million pounds of fish annually. Many of these illegally-caught fish end up back in US markets, impacting the bottom line of thousands of U.S. commercial fishing businesses. “It’s too bad that all the US Coast Guard can do right now after catching these fishermen is confiscate their boat and what they’ve caught, and send them back over the boarder to Mexico,” said Steve Tomeny, commercial and charter fisherman from Port Fourchon, Louisiana. “There they just find another boat and head back into US waters to continue poaching.”