Gloucester woes continue

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by Finaddict

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is a great law, but doesn't mean illegal fishing from foreign vessels has ended in our coastal zones ... below are a few examples of this not happening since 1977 ...

The United States apprehends and prosecutes foreign flag vessels that engage in IUU fishing within waters under the jurisdiction of the United States and through appropriate international authorities. The cases described below are examples of such sanctions.

In September 1994, the Honduran-flagged, Korean owned, F/V HAENG BOK #309 was determined to have made three incursions into the U.S. EEZ, and it complied promptly with U.S. Coast Guard attempts to conduct a boarding. The case was settled for a civil penalty of $1.12m and the company was required to put Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) on their entire fleet of 19 longliners for a period of five years.

The Polish flag vessel ADMIRAL ARCISZEWSKI was detected fishing 1000 yards within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on June 14, 1996. This was the vessel’s second offense. The case was settled for $750,000, plus $10,276 for U.S. Coast Guard costs.

The South Korean flag vessel KUM KANG SAN was detected fishing 500 yards within the U.S. EEZ on September 6, 2000, and it complied promptly with U.S. Coast Guard attempts to conduct a boarding. The case was settled for $300,000 plus $16,415.29 in costs.

In July 1997, the unflagged F/V CAO YU #6025 was detected conducting large scale driftnet fishing, and the vessel failed to cooperate with the U.S. Coast Guard boarding attempts, resulting in a forced boarding of the vessel. The vessel was forfeited to the United States along with its entire catch of 120 mt of albacore tuna, for an estimated total loss to the unknown owner of $435,000.

The South Korean flag vessel MAN JOEK was detected fishing 400 yards within the U.S. EEZ on November 10, 2001, and it complied promptly with U.S. Coast Guard attempts to conduct a boarding. The case was settled for $250,000.

O.K. I should have said legally fishing in the EEZ. Even so, not many boats have been caught illegally fishing, and most of those were probably just due to a navigation error. But there have been a lot more incidents of illegal foreign boats in the U.S. EEZ in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the stuff quoted above from NOAA and PEW concern IUU fishing outside of the U.S.