CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A record number of illegal fishing boats were interdicted by the Coast Guard in the Gulf of Mexico during this fiscal year.
“This past year, we applied an unprecedented level of effort along the Maritime Boundary Line towards countering this threat to our natural resources, and the result speaks for itself," said Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Prado, Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi enforcement chief.
According to a press release from the Coast Guard, its assets and personnel detected a total of 326 illegal fishing boats and interdicted 136 of them since October 2019.
"We will continue to leverage all available technology and partnerships to increase our effectiveness," said Prado. "The boating public can play a key role in assisting the Coast Guard. Successful interdictions are oftentimes the result of timely reports from the maritime community. We encourage all boaters to continue to report all suspected illegal fishing.”
The Coast Guard encourages legal and licensed boaters to report any suspicious activity to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s “Operation Game Thief” at 1-800-792-GAME (4263).
