Backers of red snapper legislation advancing in the United States Senate say it could protect the United States market from illegal Mexican fishing – though its approach relies on technology that has yet to be developed.

In fact, a bill backed by three Republican senators — Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, along with Ted Cruz of Texas — is a call for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to figure out the methodology needed to create nationality field test kits for red snapper. It sets a two-year deadline.

If enacted, the legislation would give the under secretary of commerce for standards & technology and the director of the NIST, a position currently held by Laurie Locascio, a two-year deadline. It calls for the under secretary to work with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to develop a “joint standard of methodology based on chemical analysis for identifying the country of origin of red snapper.”

By the two-year deadline, the under secretary would be required to submit a report that sums up the methods developed as well as “a plan for operationalizing the methodology.” That’s clarified elsewhere as “a field kit that can be easily carried by one individual,” involves minimal processing time, and its otherwise suited to the needs of law enforcement officers in the field.

A news release from Britt’s office said that on Wednesday the bill was advanced by the Senate Commerce Committee, making it eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

“Red snapper is a core component of Coastal Alabama’s economy, and I’m proud to fight to protect our hardworking fishermen and food producers,” Britt said in her release. “This bill would combat malicious, illegal activity by cartel-backed poachers who are endangering the livelihoods of law-abiding Americans and encroaching on our territorial sovereignty. I’m thankful to Senator Cruz for shepherding this important legislation to ensure fairness for U.S. fishermen and families through the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Schumer should now bring this commonsense legislation to the floor.”

Britt and Tuberville say Mexican fishermen in small boats illegally catch snapper in U.S. waters. “The fish are sold in Mexico or mixed in with legally-caught red snapper then exported back into the United States across land borders,” both have said.

Britt’s release says that “with the help of machine learning, NIST scientists are currently able to chemically determine the geographic origin of foods, including strawberries, apples, cherries, ginseng, ginkgo, beef, honey, and rice. Using those same methodologies, these scientists believe it would be possible to determine the geographic origin of red snapper.”

A request for comment from the NIST was pending as this story was published.

Statements from Britt and Tuberville have also used the phrasing that “The same fishing boats and fishermen who catch red snapper also smuggle drugs and humans for the [Mexican] cartels, and these profits support the organization.” Scant evidence for this is presented. Both senators cite a RAND think tank report presenting Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing as a major risk to U.S. maritime security. That RAND report, which generally emphasizes administrative approaches to the IUU fight, does make passing reference to the possibility of involuntary labor aboard illegal fishing ships. But on that point it cites a New Yorker article about illegal Chinese fishing fleets operating around the world; the New Yorker story makes no reference to Mexican cartels, drug trafficking or red snapper.

There seems to be widespread agreement that IUU fishing is a problem with serious economic and environmental consequences. In 2023 Mexico joined dozens of countries, including the United States, in an international agreement designed to combat it. Britt and Tuberville have said that if their proposed testing for red snapper is successful, “this method could be expanded to identify other IUU fish.”

“Alabama lands 34 percent of all recreationally caught Red Snapper in the Gulf,” Tuberville said in a March statement. “Unfortunately, our domestic Red Snapper industry is being undermined by Mexican fishermen who are illegally catching these fish in the Gulf, smuggling them into Mexico, and then reselling the same fish back to Americans. In addition to taking business away from Alabamian fisherman, many of the profits from these illegal fishing operations are funding the cartels. I’m proud to join Senator Cruz in introducing the Illegal Red Snapper Enforcement Act to stop illegal Red Snapper from flooding our markets and bankrupting our great fishermen.”