The United States authorities have decided to close ports to Mexican vessels as of February 7.
Attorney Sarah Uhlemann, director of the international program of the Center for Biological Diversity in the United States, believes that the sanctions for those who commit illegal fishing have not been severe enough by the authorities in Mexico and that measures by the United States can escalate, as their laws allow them.
The announcement of the closure of access to port services comes after the identification of illegal fishing by Mexican boats in 2019 and the negative certification to Mexico in the 2021 report of the United States National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to Congress.
In March 2021, authorities from both countries held a virtual meeting to discuss measures to curb the illegal incursion of Mexican boats into the United States. The recidivism rate among detected offenders was 87% for both 2019 and 2020, with 328 repeat offenders intercepted in 2019 and 278 in 2020, according to the report.
The United States “stands ready to re-establish U.S. port privileges for Mexican boats operating in the Gulf of Mexico once actions are taken by Mexico,” said the NOAA statement.
In an interview, lawyer Uhlemann details her perspective on illegal fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and some scenarios of measures to address illegal boat incursions into the United States that could occur if the problem of illegal fishing is not addressed.
— We have recently seen the decision of United States officials to deny the entry of Mexican boats to United States ports. I want to start by asking you, why does this problem continue every year?
In the United States, there are a number of laws that require the government to ensure that other countries are meeting United States conservation standards. We have one of the strongest environmental and conservation standards in the world, particularly for wildlife.
So one of these laws is called the Moratorium Protection Act, which requires the United States government to identify, every two years, any country that is involved in illegal fishing.
— What have you identified about Mexico in these reviews?
In 2015, the United States identified Mexico for incursions into United States waters, mainly fishermen searching for huachinango. For a variety of reasons, and for sovereignty, the United States has specific fishing laws both for conservation and for requiring permits. If Mexican (illegal) boats are in the waters of the United States, they are not complying with any of that.
— What happens after a country is identified by NOAA as having illegal fishing practices?
The United States has identified Mexico for a number of years, the law requires that if a country is identified then the United States government begins to have conversations with the country, in this case Mexico.
He talks to them about the problems that exist, asks them what they are doing to solve it and every two years they have to make the decision whether to certify the nation. So if a certification problem occurs, there are a number of penalties that can be applied.
We know, looking at the documents, that there have been a number of discussions between the governments of the United States and that of Mexico, that the government of Mexico has promised and promised that it will do better and has begun to carry out criminal investigations and has talked a lot about how it is going to carry out those persecution, but at the end of the day, the United States continues to find not only violations, but more violations every year.
— What do the data in the reports on illegal fishing say?
It was very clear that criminal prosecution was not solving the problems. So the United States made the decision to penalize Mexico, the penalties at this time are a ban on port privileges.
— Do you think this is the most efficient measure than the United States authorities?
This is the first group of penalties that may apply. To be totally honest, I don't really have a good idea of how many Mexican boats are coming to the United States. But I asked some people and they tell me that there are some, but I couldn't verify the numbers there.
Certainly, I think that's a strong warning, as I understand it, it's to some extent a penalty, but the law also allows the United States to veto a much greater extent imports of fish and fish products.
Obviously, the penalty of a ban on imports of fish products to the United States from Mexico is a much more serious measure. I hope that the government is considering it a shame because I think that is what will get the Mexican government to answer on this issue.
— Do you think that would put much more pressure on the Mexican authorities?
Yes. Certainly. We know that pressure through the market is effective. And this isn't the first time that the United States in recent years has penalized Mexico for illegal fishing. To give a couple of examples, the last one was in April. There is a very different law in the United States that allows other nations to be penalized called Section 609, involving the shrimp industry.
The United States withdrew a certification that allows Mexico to continue exporting wild shrimp to the United States. And that was imposed because Mexican boats didn't put in the right type of device, Turtle Excluders, to ensure that there was no incidental fishing of sea turtles. That has been lifted, but we know that for that ban to be lifted, heaven and earth really moved. And he really took himself very seriously about ensuring regulations, compliance, increasing compliance. And in the year that was finally fulfilled.
And there is also another law in the United States that has a ban on imports of marine fish that arrive from the habitat of the vaquita marina by incidental fishing. In response to this, the Government of Mexico implemented very strong, new regulations. He doesn't meet them, but we do see action. These embargoes matter, this is a very large market (the United States) for Mexican seafood.
— The NOAA statement says that the United States is ready to restore port privileges once actions are taken. So just to be specific about actions, what should I do to combat illegal fishing?
Yes, I know that the Mexican government has been making some inquiries, but we have seen that that is not enough. We've seen a lot of repeat offenders, what I think is that the penalties for offenders haven't been severe enough.
Offenders need to be shown that this is a serious matter, which the Mexican government will take very seriously. I think a bigger problem here is that the López Obrador administration has made it very clear that it doesn't care about wildlife or illegal fishing.
Illegal fishing remains rampant in Mexico, and the López Obrador administration has emptied budgets for environmental and fishing institutions. And it's hard to make a difference when you don't have the funds to do so. I think there must be a commitment from above, from the president himself, that this is a problem that Mexico can and will combat.
— I was reading that in 2020 the Center filed a lawsuit with the United States Department of the Interior that ultimately helped impose a ban on imports. That was related to the vaquita. Do you contemplate something similar in the case of huachinango in the Gulf of Mexico?
I don't know. ... Lots of dead sea turtles are coming to Texas beaches and it's believed that these (illegal) Mexican ships are a big part of the problem, so it's something we're looking at very closely, something we talk about with government authorities. I don't know if we will file a lawsuit about this, in the United States it's an option that we always have, and because the courts are very open to this type of lawsuit, so we'll be following this case very closely.
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