Along the U.S.-Mexico maritime border, the incursions occur almost daily. The boats are outfitted with small outboard motors, powerful enough to flee pursuing Border Patrol and Coast Guard vessels.
The Mexican skiffs are loaded not with drugs or migrants, but with red snapper, sea turtles and sharks.
U.S. officials say the threat posed by Mexican fisherman casting their nets illegally in U.S. waters has grown so acute that for the first time in years, they’ve banned Mexican fishing vessels from entering U.S. ports.
“These vessels … will be denied port access and services,” said Lauren Gaches, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She said the sanction was being applied in response to Mexico’s “continued failure to combat unauthorized fishing activities by small hulled vessels in U.S. waters.” It took effect Monday.
The U.S. Coast Guard apprehended 208 Mexican fishermen in 78 skiffs for illegal cross-border fishing in the 2021 fiscal year, seizing 15,484 pounds of marine life from the boats.
Read more:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-blocks-mexican-fishermen-from-ports-cites-years-of-illegal-fishing-in-u-s-waters/