Coast Guard doing a lot of snake wrestling
In the past few months, USCG units deployed in South Texas have been swamped with Operation Sea Serpent, described as “a joint law enforcement operation aimed at stopping Transnational Criminal Organizations from using maritime routes for illicit activity and to protect our living marine resources national assets from exploitation.”
Bottom line is that it consists of Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team members, working with small boats (87-foot WPBs, 33-foot law enforcement boats, etc) as well as aviation assets such as HC-144 Ocean Sentry and MH-65 Dolphins operating in the EEZ around South Padre Island and other points south to nail Mexican lanchas creeping north into U.S waters to snag red snapper, sharks, and other tasty Gulf seafood.
A Coast Guard crew seizes 450 red snapper from a lancha caught off the coast of South Padre Island, June 1, 2014. Courtesy photo: U.S. Coast Guard
Earlier this month the coasties announced they have tracked 85 lancha sightings, all of which have been suspected of illegally poaching in U.S. waters. The Coast Guard has seized 27 of them and compelled another 33 back south across the U.S./Mexico border. Then yesterday came the news that they caught another one.
From the release:
At approximately 3:45 p.m. on a routine patrol, a Coast Guard Station South Padre Island boatcrew aboard a 33-foot law enforcement boat sighted a 20-foot Mexican fishing boat, also known as a lancha. Once spotted, the lancha ceased movement and was intercepted 19 miles offshore and 2 miles north of the maritime border with four people aboard.
“So far this year we have had a record number of sightings and seizures, mostly with large amounts of red snapper on board. And they target many of our popular recreational fishing spots like oil rigs and reefs,” said Cmdr. Daniel Deptula, the response officer of Sector Corpus Christi.
The lancha was actively fishing without a legal permit and had caught 130 red snapper in U.S. waters. The red snapper were all dead and packed in ice. The lancha was towed back to Station South Padre Island and the four crewmembers were turned over to Customs and Border Protection.
By the way, where I live the feds have restricted the red snapper season to just nine days, with a maximum of just two per day.