Members of the Fisheries Surveillance Committee of the eastern coast, Conapesca inspectors, and agents of the Secretary of the Navy intensified their operations at sea after the recent discovery of clandestine poaching camps.
Just the day before yesterday, in a surprise operation, five camps were discovered near Dzilam de Bravo, in the area known as “las bocas” and “Punta Nichili” where the officers arrived, but there were no poachers or boats.
What caught the attention of the Conapesca inspectors and the fisheries surveillance committee was that in addition to the diving equipment between harpoon guns and hooks, there were three pots and stoves, which indicates that they were clandestine places where the poacher precook the product.
According to the fishing leaders, everything seems to indicate that once they take out the sea cucumber, which is permanently banned, they salt it because its value is greater to deliver to buyers.
However, what makes them angry is that they are looting all the species that are banned for fishing, from octopus, lobster, and grouper.
After the dismantling of those camps yesterday, the operation on the high seas was repeated because the officers were trying to hunt down poachers and even more so now that they have joined in surveillance even those of Dzilam de Bravo.
According to the fishermen, after what they have seen, they are less likely to let their guard down because they fear that at any moment they could set up other camps and one way to avoid them is to remain vigilant.
Inspections in the sea officially begin on March 15. However, they went ahead with the operations after the strong demand from the fishing union for the presence of poachers.
Regarding what was confiscated (diving equipment and kitchen utensils), the river residents indicated that they remained in the possession of the Fisheries Surveillance Committee as evidence of the existence of the camps. Yesterday nothing was found since they just hit the camps, however, they will continue the departures and return to the place to prevent further predation of the closed species.