I just received an email from Dr. Rachel T. Graham, Ocean Giants Program Wildlife Conservation Society in Belize that the local fishing communities and the conservation community is extremely upset by the arrival of the Jamaican fishers.
Hi Walt,
I had been in touch with you previously about goliath grouper. Now I am contacting you because I know that you are a staunch advocate against fish traps. We have a worrisome situation in Southern Belize where a Jamaican company (possibly two) are setting up shop in Belize to fish our fish and sell them back to us as well as the rest of the Caribbean and to the US. That's the briefest synposis of the covert agreement and business plan that we were just able to read today.
Yes, contrary to what may have been said by Belize’s Fisheries Administrator, Jamaican fishers have arrived with their own boats and apparently are allowed to fish here.
The agreements have been cloaked in secrecy but now we do know for sure that they want to use traps (they arrived this weekend on five boats with 40 large traps as a starter) possibly other unsustainable fishing gears. The Cooperative refuses to show anyone the agreement/contract. But, they apparently have an agreement to purchase/fish 40,000lbs of fish per month for 15 years - at BZ2.50/US1.25 per lb.
And it gets worse. The Jamaican company has purchased two shrimp trawlers from the large Northern Cooperative and land further up the coast near Placencia, a place where they can land and freeze their fish before taking it back to Jamaica.
A wave of discontent is building. Any papers as well as images or clips you can send (maybe via YouSend it) of the deleterious impacts of fish traps would be most helpful. We are holding a big meeting on Wednesday the 9th. I hope that much will come to light then. I even have a Jamaican lady who runs a dive shop here now who used to dive in Jamaica for years coming to testify of the ravages traps and such have wrought on Jamaica's now non-existant fishery. Your images will be a further help to inform all of the ravages of traps and the Caricom agreement.
Any images or brief video that you could send us by Wednesday am that depicts ghost rtraps, impacts on the benthos and any information on who has banned traps, why etc. would be very welcome and most useful in the discussions planned for Wednesday pm with fishers and policymakers.
Rachel
Dr. Rachel T. Graham
Ocean Giants Program
Wildlife Conservation Society
PO Box 37
Punta Gorda, Belize
t: +501 722 0063
e: rgraham@wcs.org
I have sent a bunch of stuff I have, but more is certainly welcomed and much needed if you care about the diving in Belize.
