A Coast Guard seized boat crew 1,076 pounds of northern red snapper illegally caught by a Mexican fishing boat poaching in waters off South Padre Island in Texas, last Thursday.
At approximately 2:40 a.m., Coast Guard boat crew members sighted a Mexican fishing boat with four people, near the maritime boundary line.
The lancha was stopped by a South Padre Island 33-foot boat crew who seized the 281 red snapper.
“We continue to see significant illegal fishing from Mexican fishing vessels. Illegal harvesting of large amounts of red snapper with extensive longline and gillnet operations at a significant cost have already depleted the gulf’s red snapper population,” said Capt. Tony Hahn, Sector Corpus Christi commanding officer.
