On the 6th of February 2004, Captain Mitch Bucklew was delivering a small boat to San Diego. Due to high winds he sought shelter in a little used bay called Bahia Playa Maria located on the mainland behind Cedros Island. As he came into the bay about 4:00 pm he saw a large red and white processing ship about 300' long. During the late afternoon and throughout the night 8 different drift gillnetters unloaded their catch onto the processing boat. The permits for this boat, which Ramon Corral said wouldn't be issued, have been, but they allow the boat to move to a location and then stay there. The boat has been clandestinely unloading drift gillnetters whose catch is often billfish.

In December new head of fisheries Ramon Corral said that there would be no permits for these types of boats, yet they were issued. The 300' processing boat Pionero del Mar from Ensenada is working illegally near Cedros Island. It has been moving around in violation of its permit which demands that it be in a stationary location.

On the afternoon and though out the night of the 6th of February 2004 the processing boat Pionero del Mar was seen unloading the catch of 8 drift gillnetters at Bahia Playa Maria inland from Cedros Island.

Drift gillnettters like this one were unloading their catch onto the processing ship. This is an example only not one of the actual boats