Henry Collard, FONMAR, and a Flurry of News Articles

The situation with the Shark Norma and the three ships busted in Baja waters over the last few weeks has been generating a lot of press. Some of the articles I have been reading include:

Mexican 'Fishing Mafia' Charged for Catching Sportfishing Reserved Species

Baja bust nets 10 - 12 tons of dorado

Mexican "fishing mafia" tagged for three illegal catches

Conservation efforts of The Billfish Foundation in Baja region beginning to pay off

Illegal fishing has had a phenomenal season, too

Impuestos "subsidian" la pesca furtiva - Taxes subsidize illegal fishing

Que se reparta el producto decomisado

"A pesar de que el propietario del producto, Henry Collard, quien es al parecer el presidente de la Cámara de la Industria Pesquera con sede en Mazatlán, Sinaloa, de manera prepotente intentó intimidar vía telefónica al encargado de CONAPESCA, Enrique Zapata, diciéndole que era amigo del Comisionado de Pesca, Ramón Corral, no logró su objetivo y le fue asegurado el producto y las embarcaciones."

Saquean nuestros mares

Marlin Magazine and others picked up this story.

Some important articles from El Sud Californiano regarding the Shark Norma and Henry Collard include:

Continúa la lucha contra la NOM-029

La NOM-029 pone en riesgo la subsistencia de la pesca deportiva y regional: ANR

Reconoce Billfish Foundation lucha por conservar picudos

Van por 3 mil toneladas de picudos

Depredan picudos al amparo de la NOM-029

FONMAR

The following was copied from a thread on the Baja Nomads Forum posted by Don Alley - it is an email update from The Billfish Foundation:

"What Your Fishing License Fees Can Do

Illegal Fishing Bust in Mag BayCommunity based enforcement efforts supported by The Billfish Foundation (TBF) through the Baja California Sur Center for Marine Protection and funded by the recreational fishing license fees paid to FONMAR have resulted in three recent seizures of illegally harvested dorado. TBF was instrumental in getting FONMAR established so that angler's license fees would go directly to assisting conservation and protection of the fish resources.

Three weeks ago, a vessel was seized in Loreto and, this past weekend, two boats owned by commercial longline king Henry Collard were seized and charged with illegally harvesting dorado while using a shark permit in Magdelena Bay. Collard, a prominent representative of commercial fishing interests, was reported in El Sudcaliforniano to have threatened fisheries enforcement agents that he "is a personal friend of Ramon Corral and you can't do this to me!" This statement does not do much for Corral's already tainted image by accusations of wrong doing by his own Conapesca personnel.

Corral is the head of Mexico's fisheries agency CONAPESCA and has been an unyielding supporter of the shark Nom-029 that attempted to allow the "incidental" harvest of billfish, dorado and other species within Mexico's 24 year old conservation
zones.

Apparently the recent interest of U.S. enforcement officials in the import of illegally caught dorado has persuaded CONAPESCA that they need to concede TBF's position that there is no basis in Mexican law to allow bycatch in the conservation zones and enforce the federal fisheries law," said TBF President Ellen Peel. Full details of the story will follow in the upcoming issue of Billfish magazine."