Baja bust nets 10 - 12 tons of dorado
Photo courtesy of Tailhunter International
Caption: Dorado, or mahi-mahi, are reserved for sport anglers in Mexican waters, yet they do not always elude the hooks of longliners supposedly fishing for sharks.
The Billfish Foundation issued a news release lauding the bust last weekend in Magdalena Bay of two Mexican longline fishing crews for illegally harvesting 10-12 tons of dorado while holding shark permits.
The only real news here: Mexico may actually be enforcing, to whatever degree, a law that fishermen holding shark permits—since there aren’t enough sharks left off Mexico to justify large-scale shark fishing—openly violate.
It is widely believed that the majority of these fishermen are after bycatch: the so-called incidental catch of more marketable species.
It is also reasonable to assume that illegally caught dorado—the species is reserved for sport angling in Mexican waters—has been ending up in U.S. markets and being sold as mahi-mahi, a more glamorous name for the same species of fish.
“Apparently the recent interest of U.S. enforcement officials in the import of illegally caught dorado has persuaded CONAPESCA that they need to concede TBF’s position that there is no basis in Mexican law to allow bycatch in the conservation zones and enforce the federal fisheries law,” said Ellen Peel, president of the The Billfish Foundation, a Florida-based conservation group.
CONAPESCA is Mexico’s fisheries agency, run by Ramon Corral, who has been an ardent supporter of a controversial shark fishing regulation that favors commercial fishing interests over sportfishing interests.
Peel said the two vessels—owned by renowned longliner Henry Collard—and their hauls remain confiscated at Port San Carlos within Magdalena Bay on the west coast of Baja California Sur.
Collard is an influential figure in the fishing industry. It'll interesting to see how seriously Mexico treats this case.
--Pete Thomas
