Last week, NOAA Fisheries issued its most recent “biennial” report to Congress on Improving International Fisheries Management (June 2026). The agency explained that despite the recent release, the report “was prepared in 2025.”
According to the agency’s two-page fact sheet regarding the 2026 report:
- Six countries were identified for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing: Costa Rica, Grenada, Mexico, Morocco, the People’s Republic of China, and the Russian Federation.
- Two countries were identified for the production of seafood-related goods through forced labor: Burma and the People’s Republic of China.
The agency also updated “certification” determinations, providing this explanation:
“NOAA Fisheries issues a positive certification if the nation or entity has provided evidence of actions that address the activities for which it was identified. If sufficient action has not been taken, NOAA Fisheries issues a negative certification which results in U.S. port restrictions for fishing vessels of that nation or entity, and could result in import restrictions on certain fish or fish products.”
- The 2026 report announced that four nations previously identified as engaging in IUU fishing each received positive certifications based on meaningful efforts made to eliminate illegal fishing since the agency’s 2023 report: Angola, The Gambia, Taiwan, and Vanuatu.
- However, NOAA Fisheries issued negative certifications for three other countries due to failures to sufficiently address illegal fishing: Grenada, Mexico, and the People’s Republic of China.
Mexico’s Poor Track Record
Mexico’s identification and negative certification results from the illegal fishing of lanchas in U.S. waters, primarily focused on red snapper. Through these biennial reports to Congress, NOAA Fisheries has now “identified Mexico for the same issue” for the sixth consecutive time, beginning in 2015 and again in 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, and once more in 2025. Moreover, NOAA Fisheries has issued negative certifications to Mexico due to the illegal fishing of lanchas in the last three biennial reports to Congress (2021, 2023, and 2025).
Following the first negative certification in 2021, NOAA Fisheries barred Mexican fishing vessels from using American ports: “As a result of these negative certifications, Mexican fishing vessels that fish in the Gulf of America have been prohibited from entering U.S. ports, and denied port access and services since February 7, 2022.”
New U.S. Government Response Needed
The 2026 report recognizes that these measures have not resulted in meaningful reductions in Mexican illegal fishing in U.S. waters:
“However, despite these actions, numerous consultations between the United States and the Government of Mexico, the port restrictions described above, and the possibility of further negative actions allowable under U.S. law, frequent incursions into the U.S. EEZ to fish have continued and the rate of recidivism has increased. . . There is no evidence that actions taken by Mexico have been effective in addressing this issue.”
Instead, there is substantial evidence demonstrating that illegal fishing has continued in U.S. waters in the Gulf of America without abatement:
“The [U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)] interdicted 185 lanchas for suspicion of illegal fishing in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The USCG prepared 175 case packages with evidence of illegal fishing and delivered them to the Government of Mexico for prosecution. In addition, many individual crew members have been interdicted frequently for the same offense, some more than 40 times. In fact, 92 percent of the Mexican individuals interdicted in 2024 for illegal fishing in the U.S. EEZ had been interdicted before. By any analysis, the issue of lancha incursions into U.S. waters is substantial, ongoing, and yet to be effectively addressed.”
An Unused Tool: Import Restrictions
As noted by NOAA Fisheries, negative certifications may also result in import restrictions on certain fish or fish products. Specifically, Congress has granted the President authority, codified at 16 U.S.C. § 1826a(b)(3), to order the prohibition of imports of fish and fish products from nations receiving negative certifications.
That authority has never been used to combat IUU fishing despite industry and Congressional pressure.
Following the issuance of the 2023 report, the Southern Shrimp Alliance argued that import restrictions were necessary to incentivize changes in the behavior of Mexican fishermen.
Earlier this year, all ten Senators representing states bordering the Gulf of America joined a letter citing the statutory authority to restrict imports, noting that this authority has never been exercised “even as evidence mounts that illegally harvested red snapper continues to enter U.S. commerce through cartel-linked supply chains,” and requesting that NOAA Fisheries “more aggressively apply[] its existing authorities to ensure that illegally harvested red snapper is not sold in the United States.”
NOAA Fisheries indicates that more talks are planned: “The United States will continue its ongoing consultations with Mexico.”
However, the Southern Shrimp Alliance does not see reason to believe that these continued discussions will reduce, much less prevent, future illegal fishing in U.S. waters by Mexican lanchas without strong actions—such as the use of import restrictions.
Mexican Illegal Fishing Burdens U.S. Taxpayers and American Commercial Fishermen
The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS OIG) has explained that the USCG spends approximately $5.9 million on each IUU fishing interdiction with 98 percent of all such interdictions occurring in the Gulf of America. This estimate means that the 185 USCG interdictions of Mexican lanchas in 2022, 2023, and 2024 cost American taxpayers over $1 billion.
Mexican lanchas continue to target finfish in U.S. waters, including red snapper, that are subject to heavy commercial fisheries regulation by NOAA Fisheries. These regulations impact the U.S. shrimp fishery operating in the Gulf of America, which is held strictly accountable for its bycatch of juvenile red snapper as part of the NOAA Fisheries rebuilding plan for this stock. Further, these lanchas employ fishing gear that severely endanger vulnerable populations of sea turtles and marine mammals for which American commercial shrimpers are held strictly accountable pursuant to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. To the extent that the status of these red snapper, sea turtle, or marine mammal populations are adversely impacted by this illegal fishing by Mexican lanchas, U.S. commercial fisheries pay the price through increased regulations needed to offset those impacts.
For these reasons, the continuing, increasing, and blatant violations of U.S. law by Mexican lanchas pose direct threats to American commercial fishermen.
“There is no dispute that illegal fishing in U.S. waters by Mexican lanchas significantly undermines the regulation and operations of American commercial fisheries,” said Blake Price, the Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “After over ten years of recognizing the harm caused by red snapper and other fish being stolen from our waters, a different approach is needed. On behalf of all U.S. commercial fishermen operating in the Gulf of America, the Southern Shrimp Alliance urgently requests that President Trump use his authority, granted by Congress, to stop imports of Mexican red snapper and other seafood until the lanchas are no more.”
Read the January 14, 2026 letter from Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Ashley Moody (R-FL) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) here: https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Illegal-Harvest-of-U.S.-Red-Snapper-in-the-Gulf-of-America-Letter1.pdf