Seized Tuna Boats Fined; Mexico May Confiscate Fish

The owners of two California tuna boats were fined Friday for violating Mexican territorial waters, and the Mexican government has moved to confiscate the 70-ton catch of one of them, the Karen Kristie of San Diego.

Both boats, which were seized last Saturday while transferring fuel from one to the other, were cited for interloping in Mexican territorial waters, said Bill Perkins, president of the Western Fish Boat Owners Assn.

“We always advise the captains not to go inside the 12 miles,” Perkins said. However, he said he felt Mexican officials were partly to blame because they had failed to process the fishing license application for one of the boats.

Perkins said the Karen Kristie was qualified to have a Mexican license and had applied for one in mid-December. But when the boat went into the Mexican port of Ensenada in January to pick up the license and a crew, Mexican authorities did not have the license ready.

Perkins said the two skippers were forced to exchange fuel in territorial waters because of storm conditions. They anchored in more protected waters about 70 miles north of the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, off its western shore.

The owner of the Laurie Anne, a purse seiner out of San Pedro that which had no fish, was fined $6,345. Bob Pringle, the owner of the Karen Kristie, was to fly to La Paz today to pay his $1,800 fine.

The Karen Kristie, a 100-foot bait boat, which uses poles and live bait to catch fish, was returning to San Diego after about five weeks of fishing. It was low on fuel and had radioed the Laurie Anne, which had just departed San Pedro and had not begun fishing.

The boats were transfering 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel when they were seized by a Mexican navy vessel.

The fishing boats have been anchored under armed guard in La Paz.

Crew members of both boats have been treated well by the Mexican government, Perkins said. The skipper of the Karen Kristie, Steve Anderson, and his engineer, Wayne Johnston, are from San Diego. The other crewmen are Mexican fishermen picked up in Ensenada.