The idea went nowhere. We do an awful lot of cooperative international work, with U.S. possessions and territories and states in the Pacific. Unfortunately, none of that international cooperation is with Mexico. The Mexican government may be reticent, but Enriqueta Velarde is not. She is a professor at the prestigious Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City and has worked many years in the Sea of Cortez.
Some inspectors just go from one fish camp to another gathering bribes.
They allow people to continue to fish whether they have permits or not, as long as they get their bribe. And if someone protests, they threaten them. They threaten to take away their fishing rights or their equipment. Loreto is one of the top sport-fishing centers on the Baja Peninsula. But if you go to bigger areas, more commercial areas, where they fish for abalone and lobster, there is.