River Patrol is just one of the places that oversee Texas game wardens. Much of their work is in the Gulf of Mexico, where Mexican fishing boats operate illegally with gillnets and long lines, both of which are very blind in the fish they kill as well as very deadly. (c) 1. No person shall possess seines, fixed nets, gillnets or trammel nets within 500 metres of the public coastal waters of that State if the use of the seine seine or net for fishing purposes is not authorized by this Code or by a proclamation of the Commission under this Code. « We know we will find illegal material when we go up there, and nine is not uncommon, » he added. Photos released after the patrol show the rangers with the bow of their boat, which is filled to overflow plastic nets and floats and weights that hold the gillnets perpendicular to the river current. The scale of illegal fishing in U.S. Gulf waters is significant. The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that there are more than 1,100 illegal incursions by fishing vessels each year in U.S.-controlled Gulf waters, with red snapper also being a highly targeted species. « Most of the time, it`s long lines, » Gonzalez said. « They are much easier to work with, they can carry a lot more equipment in their boats than gillnets where they take up a lot of space in their boats. » After the identification of the three fishermen, the rangers issued them a total of 17 quotes and warnings for lack of fishing licenses, illegal means and methods, illegal trableins/jugs and failure to keep the fish in an edible state. Proceedings and civil restitution are ongoing, according to the Facebook post.
Gonzalez said the patrol was lucky to discover and remove the illegal nets shortly after they were installed. Gillnets can be left in place for days, and the longer they are used, the more fish are killed. Texas game wardens swept across the Rio Grande last weekend, removing nine gillnets set up by commercial fishermen in Mexico. Gillnets that indiscriminately kill any fish that sticks its head through the net and gets caught are illegal in Texas, but not in Mexico. « There is an abundance of illegal fishing boats coming from Mexico, they have always existed, » Gonzalez said. « This is not new. Sometimes you catch them, sometimes you don`t. It`s a big game of cat and mouse, like everything else about law enforcement. TRINITY, TX (KTRE) – Houston, Polk and Trinity County rangers issued a total of 17 citations and warnings to three fishermen in connection with allegations that they used illegal gillnets to fish in a creek near the Trinity River last weekend. Texas Rangers conducting an increased naval patrol in the lower Rio Grande near Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville recently seized about 8,000 feet of illegal gillnets. Gonzalez said illegal fishing by commercial fishing boats with home ports in Mexico is a known problem for Texas Game Wardens, the U.S.
Coast Guard, Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, agencies that typically pool resources to patrol the Gulf. Guards in Cameron and Hidalgo counties say Mexico allows gillnets on the south side of the river, but those nets also span the river in U.S. waters. « It is not illegal for them to use this type of fishing net in Mexico, » he said. « Sometimes we go down the river and we find an abundance of gillnets and sometimes we go up the river and we find an abundance of crab traps. « So we know that gillnets are illegal in our waters, so we will cut the nets halfway and we will take the nets, » he added. Do you want to know more about illegal fishing? Click here. According to a post on the Texas Game Wardens Facebook page, rangers from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department of Houston, Polk and Trinity counties have teamed up to investigate a report of gillnets at Dillard Creek, located directly on the Trinity River in Trinity County. Although no arrests were made, the gillnet was believed to have belonged to commercial fishermen in Mexico. Fishing with a gillnet in Texas waters is a violation of state law.
In the Gulf, the target species of illegal fishing boats are migratory species such as shark, Spanish mackerel or king mackerel. « During the patrol, they came across these gillnets stretched across the river, » said Ira Zuniga, public information officer for the Texas Game Warden. « Normally, half of the river belongs to us, and these commercial fishermen sometimes spread the nets freely alongside us.