Anglers busted with 1,000 pounds of shark illegally caught off Texas, officials say
A crew of fishermen was caught off the coast of Texas with their boat full of illegally caught sharks, according to a U.S. Coast Guard.
It happened Sunday, April 9, and the “lancha” boat and its crew are based out of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release.
The four anglers were carrying “approximately 1,000 pounds of illegally caught shark,” officials said.
“Our interdiction of this lancha is a testament to the vigilance and dedication of our crews in enforcing marine conservation laws,” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Rantuccio said in the release.
“We will continue to actively monitor and combat illegal fishing activities to preserve the delicate balance of our marine ecosystems.”
A photo shows two large sharks and several smaller ones stacked in the rear of the fishing boat.
Investigators did not identify the species, but NOAA Fisheries manages 43 species of shark to ”prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks.” Anglers who catch them by accident are required to release them.
Included among the managed species are tiger, sandbar and great white sharks, NOAA Fisheries says. The latter is an apex predator that can grow to 20 feet and is known to migrate seasonally into the Gulf of Mexico from the North Atlantic.
The fishermen were turned over to U.S. border enforcement agents, officials said. Investigators did not report details of charges the men may face.
Lancha are 20- to 30-foot fishing boats frequently used “to transport illegal narcotics to the U.S. and illegally fish in the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone near the U.S./Mexico border in the Gulf of Mexico,” the Coast Guard reports. They’re slender, have only one outboard motor, and travel at about 30 mph, experts say.
The economic zone extends 200 miles off shore, officials said.
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 9:52 AM with the headline "Anglers busted with 1,000 pounds of shark illegally caught off Texas, officials say."