To engage red snapper poachers, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) join Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in targeting illegally harvested red snapper. Introduced the bill.

The Illegal Red Snapper Control Act would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a standard methodology for determining the country of origin of red snapper imported into the United States.

Poaching of snapper remains a problem throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Tuberville (R-Auburn) said in a news release, with Mexican fishermen illegally catching snapper, smuggling them into their country, and then selling the fish. He said it was confusing American consumers. .

Although technology exists to chemically test and determine the geographic origin of many foods, this is not the case for golden snapper. This bill would develop field-testing kits that could be used by the Coast Guard to accurately determine whether fish were caught in Mexican or U.S. waters, allowing federal and state law enforcement officials to will be able to identify the origin of the fish and seize illegally caught red sea bream before they are caught.re-imported to the US

“Alabama lands 34 percent of all recreationally caught red snapper in the Gulf,” Tuberville said. “Unfortunately, our red snapper industry is being undermined by Mexican fishermen who illegally catch these fish in the Gulf, smuggle them to Mexico, and resell the same fish to Americans.” From an Alabama Fisherman In addition to taking away business, much of the profits from these illegal fishing operations fund cartels.

“I am proud to work with Senator Cruz to introduce the Illegal Red Snapper Control Act to stop illegal red snapper from flooding the market and bankrupting our great fishermen.”

According to a news release, Mexican fishermen are crossing the Texas-Mexico border in small boats called lanchas, illegally catching red snapper in U.S. waters, and returning to Mexico. The fish is either sold in Mexico or mixed with legally caught red snapper and exported across the land border to the United States.

Red snapper is one of the most well-managed and profitable fish in the Gulf of Mexico, but illegal fishing by Mexico's Lancia fishery puts law-abiding U.S. fishermen and seafood producers at a competitive disadvantage. said a news release. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities violate national and international fishing regulations.

Cartels that engage in drug smuggling and human trafficking also engage in illegal fishing in Thailand for profit.The same fishing boats and fishermen who catch red sea bream smuggling drugs and humans for cartelsand these profits support the organization.

With the help of machine learning, NIST scientists can chemically determine the geographic origins of foods such as strawberries, apples, cherries, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, beef, honey, and rice.

These scientists believe that using the same methodology, they can determine the geographic origins of red snapper. This allows law enforcement to better understand the networks that support illegal fishing.

It would also reduce the economic incentive for crime, since fish would not be able to be sold back to the United States. If successful, this method could be extended to identify other IUU fish.