These panga palangreros using a 5 kilometer longline and about 300 hook are part of a fleet that stated on the mainland about 1995 with 200 permit. They were initially issued fomento shark permits. In their first year there catch was over 90% protected dorado and sailfish.

Over the years the fleet of illegal panga longliners expanded into about 500 boats mostly working the mainland. As the dorado and sailfish were depleted on the mainland, the boats pulled by old shrimp boats moved to the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez with devastating results. Over the last 6 years, dorado catches in both size and number have dropped by as much as 75% between La Paz and Loreto and about 50% on the East cape.

The Panga longliners in this film were seen on July 9th 31/2 miles off the north end of San Marcos Island. There were 14 boats working there 3 weeks before and they were catching about 100 small dorado/boat/day. That's 1400 dorado each day. They had pretty well cleaned the area out, saying there were only 4 boats left and they were only getting about 50 to 60 dorado/boat/day. They subsequently moved closer to Loreto. They offload their catch to Shrimpers working the squid grounds and the catch is taken to Guaymas. Local Pesca, Navy and Profepa officials that were approached by the Baja shark fisherman demanding that the illegal dorado fishing be stopped, said they would do nothing to stop it.