Still on the same theme but a different country. While sailing in the northern Sea of Cortez I had an encounter with a 60' motor sailor that was spearing large numbers of grouper and pargo at night on scuba. He has huge freezer capacity and was freezing the fish in large numbers. I Confronted him first on the ethical issues of doing this. He did not agree with me. I then explained the Mexican fish and game regulations as I understood them and he said screw off. We were both on vessels 100 miles from the nearest port. I did not know where to go from there. The worst part is he is still there and plans to stay in the Sea of Cortez. Anyone have suggestions on what to do? I will be back around him and his boat in 3 months.
I have no clue. Probably someone that lives in Mexico would have know what to do.
Most states have a hotline to report poaching incidents. Some even offer rewards if the reports lead to a conviction. I don't know about your state but might be worth checking.
Our state is running very low on money so the hotline to report poachers in California is just an answering machine. I left a message last Friday and they still haven't called me back.
Heck I just called the California poacher hotline right now (4pm) to see if anyone's there during normal business hours and it still went straight to voice mail.
My point was not so much those specific lobsters, but that in general these guys are stealing from all of us. In fact they are even stealing from those people who simply wish to observe them. I was just trying to personalize it. .
You don't have to help personalize it for me Stephan. I'd love it if the state took lobster poaching seriously and fined people $1000 for a minor infraction. Overfishing can't decimate an area but poaching will.
