How Illegal Fishing Costs Texas And Mexico Millions Each Year
From Houston Public Media:
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
The sun sets waves wash up from the Gulf of Mexico onto the beach April 13, 2011 in Isla Grand Terre, Louisiana. T
Most of the fisheries are managed in federal waters and represent a $14 billion dollar industry.
But pirate fishing hurts commercial fishers, like Scott Hickman of the Charter Fisherman’s Association.
He told the Gulf Coast Leadership conference that it’s getting hard to make a living competing with those who skirt around the law. He says it’s a real problem.
“They’re flooding our markets with illegal fish on the commercial side, and they’re taking the ability for the charter boat fleet to be able to go out and make a living, because they’re pulling fish away from the same pool of fish that I need, to take the people that are coming down here to the coast on vacation, to go catch these fish,” said Hickman. Continue Reading
