Hidden in Plain Sight: Quantifying IUU Fishing at the Texas-Mexico Border

CCA Texas funds $50,000 to HRI for Quantifying IUU Fishing

In a significant step toward protecting marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico, CCA Texas has pledged $50,000 to support the Harte Research Institute’s efforts to investigate and quantify illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region. This partnership aims to shed light on the scope and impact of IUU fishing in the northwestern Gulf, a persistent threat to sustainable fisheries, marine ecosystems, and coastal economies. By leveraging cutting-edge research and collaborative data analysis, the initiative seeks to provide the scientific foundation needed to strengthen enforcement strategies and promote responsible stewardship of Gulf fisheries.

The following paper by Kesley G. Banks, Ph.D. and Matthew Streich, Ph.D., goes into detail about this important issue.

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The overall goal of this project is to characterize and quantify illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing of fish species (e.g., sharks and Red Snapper) in the northwestern Gulf of America (formally Gulf of Mexico; hereafter Gulf). The Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation has partnered with the United States Coast Guard Station South Padre Island (USGC), the station that performs the majority of illegal fishing vessel interceptions, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for this project. This mutually beneficial cooperation will allow us to quantify the extent of IUU fishing happening and help explore environmental factors (e.g., seasonality, weather conditions, recreational seasons, etc.) that may be influencing increased IUU fishing activity. Because the USGC crews do not have the capacity to evaluate the biological characteristics of the returned illegal catch, this unique partnership allows access to these samples for scientifically trained personnel and will increase the accuracy of data related to IUU catch.

The IUU fishing is a pervasive and serious global problem that threatens ocean ecosystems and sustainable fisheries. It encompasses fishing activity that is conducted in violation of applicable laws, fishing activity or harvests that are not reported or misreported, or fishing activity in dedicated fisheries areas lacking applicable conservation management measures. The negative impacts are far-reaching — IUU fishing poses a threat to national security, harms the economy, can have devastating effects on fish stocks that are critical to food security, and puts law-abiding fishermen and seafood producers at a disadvantage. About 80% of today’s global fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited, or depleted, meaning that harvests of these already heavily exploited stocks are likely underestimated. Globally, IUU fishing accounts for the removal of one out of every five fish from the oceans, often conducted and supported by illicit organizations. In the United States, much of the illegal fishing activity goes largely unaddressed and is carried out by illegal fishing vessels from Mexico (or “lanchas”) trespassing into U.S. waters. While the landings are immense, the full extent is unknown; yet the data is available to assess the impact.

Lanchas are known to operate in U.S. waters and regularly participate in illegal fishing during the day and drug and migrant smuggling operations during the night. Lanchas are typically 25-35 foot wooden or fiberglass vessels with a single engine and carry 2-4 crew members. The USCG, which is tasked with stopping these illegal activities, reported that in 2019 an astonishing 177 lanchas were detected, of which 86 were seized. Importantly, the number of incursions of Mexican vessels in 2020 was almost double that in 2019, and law enforcement intelligence suggests that more activity is occurring than what is detected by current surveillance operations. In 2019, the U.S. notified Mexico that it received a negative certification for participating in IUU fishing and failing to implement effective corrective actions. This negative certification means vessels from Mexico will be denied port privileges for its fishing vessels.

When lanchas are seized, the crew is apprehended and transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to be deported. Crew members are unable to be incarcerated in the U.S. for illegal fishing due to current international law. Case packages are prepared by the USCG and sent to Mexico for prosecution. However, repeat offender logs indicate some lancha crew members have been interdicted more than 25 times, suggesting prosecution in Mexico is either not happening at all or is not a sufficient deterrent. In 2018, 201 repeat offenders were apprehended and in 2019, 328 repeat offenders were apprehended. Any fish harvested by these lanchas are recorded by the USCG and disposed of at sea. However, not all lanchas are intercepted or even detected, which is supported by lost or abandoned fishing gear found by the USCG. This abandoned gear is believed to be left behind by lanchas fleeing the USCG and is still “ghost” fishing, or continuing to catch fish even when no vessel is present in the area. The number of fish caught in abandoned gear is largely unknown. Catch from IUU fishing is not included in stock assessments, resulting in an underestimate of total fish harvest and hindering best management advice.

Lanchas typically target various shark species and reef fish of high economic value such as Red Snapper, which are recreationally and commercially important fisheries in the Gulf. The USCG reports that encounters with lanchas have been increasing annually. Between January and June of 2018, the USCG seized 26,159 pounds of fish (of which 10,875 pounds were Red Snapper) from just 60 boats. In 2019, the USCG interdicted 74 lanchas and seized 21,405 pounds of Red Snapper and 3,481 pounds of sharks. While these values represent only a few interdictions that were captured, previous studies estimate that 1,900 incursions occurred annually from 2000-2005 by lanchas, suggesting that lanchas may poach upwards of 780,000 pounds of Red Snapper annually, equating to roughly three times the private recreational Red Snapper quota for Texas. This poaching activity negatively impacts the U.S. Red Snapper industry by $4 million to $12 million a year. In 2018, the U.S. imported 10,574,898 pounds of fresh and frozen snapper from Mexico (declared value of over $33 million), which raises concerns that these imports may include fish harvested illegally in the U. S. waters.

For sharks, commonly observed species in lancha seizures are blacktip sharks and hammerhead species. Many are below the minimum legal-size limit and are juvenile sharks being removed from the fishery before they are able to reproduce. For declining species like hammerhead sharks, this can have devastating long-term effects on population trajectories and rebuilding efforts. Data from 2000-2005 suggests that roughly 20-30 sharks are harvested each incursion, yielding an estimate of 38,000-57,000 sharks illegally harvested by lanchas annually. This equates to 72 – 108% of the annual commercial shark quota for the entire Gulf. The USCG reports that models used to calculate these results are likely substantially underestimating the actual magnitude of illegal lancha operations.