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It should have been well on its way back to Miami - but tonight the Caribe Mariner cargo ship is anchored at the Port of Belize and its captain Witman Gentle is in a Belize City jail. The Port Authority says that gentle and his ship will be criminally charged for causing damage to Belize’s reef. The story starts back on November 21st of last year when the ship ran aground on Western Turneffe. The Department of Environment says it damaged 2,000 square meters of reef – valued at an estimated ten million Belize dollars. Since November – government and the ship’s owner have been trying to work on a settlement. But there was no consensus and so when the ship arrived for its weekly visit to Belize this morning at 7 am – the Port Authority and police made a decisive – if unprecedented - move on the ship and its captain.

Keith Swift Reporting,
The Caribe Mariner cargo ship has been sitting idly in the Port of Belize since 11 this morning. That is when its captain Gene Whitman was arrested and the Port of Belize received this fax from the Port Authority to cease work on the ship.

Reynaldo Guerrero, CEO – Port of Belize
“The order to cease work came in by telephone from the Ports Commissioner at around 11 o’clock.”

Keith Swift,
Did he say why?

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“Well yes because they were putting the ship’s captain under arrest and the ship.”

Keith Swift,
So right now nothing is happen.

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“Nothing at all. All the works have been halted. The stevedores were tentatively removed off the vessel but at 12:30 we got word for them to be sent home. So they were sent home at 12:30.”

Keith Swift,
At what stage of loading and offloading were you at?

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“I would say about close to 50%.”

Keith Swift,
So you had to send home all your stevedores?

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“This is them first time in history that something like this has happened where the Port Authority officially stops work.”

CEO of the Port of Belize, which manages the Belize City Port, Reynaldo Guerrero says the move is unprecedented.

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“We are really shocked because the Port Authority keeps insisting that work should be at a certain level of efficiency and we can understand if there is an equipment break down or something like that but where the work is deliberately stopped, for us it is a major shock. We don’t understand what is happening.”

Ports Commissioner David Jones gave the directive to arrest the ship and its captain because it ran aground three months ago.

Lloyd Jones, Ports Commissioner
“This is in relation to a grounding that took place at Western Turneffe at I think it was the 21st of November last year.”

Keith Swift,
So that was November and we are now in February. Why now?

Lloyd Jones,
“Well it is my understanding that the DOE and the owners were in the process of negotiating, trying to come to some arrangement regarding the damage that was done to the Belize Barrier Reef and I believed that that negotiation might have broken down hence the reason for the arrest of the ship and the master.”

Keith Swift,
What is going to happen to the captain, is he in jail?

Lloyd Jones,
“Mr. Whitman as the master of the ship was responsible for the safe navigation of the ship. The DOE I understand will be bringing charges against Mr. Whitman in persona, meaning that they are bringing charges against him personally because under the Environmental Protection Act, where an offense is committed and the person who commits that offense was reckless and they caused damage to the environment,, the Department of Environment can lay charges against that person. So the master of the vessel will be charged personally for reckless damage to the Belize Barrier Reef. I imagine that they will go to court and ask for bail and things of that sort. And again if the court is satisfied with the bail posted then he will be free.”

The arrest of the Caribe Mariner comes on the heels of the Westerhaven incident. And while managers at the Port of Belize concede that in both instances the reef was damaged, they say that environmentalists and the Port Authority have failed to consider one thing – the damage this is all doing to the shipping industry.

Reynaldo Guerrero,
“I think it puts Belize in a real negative position. I can’t see where something like this can be positive, and not only because of this but because of the previous case with Westerhaven and the length of time it was held and all this type of thing and now with this other vessel, I think it puts the whole shipping industry at risk. I really can’t see it helping.

At the macro-level when the shipping is getting less and less it concerns us and especially the loss with the Westerhaven was not only the fact that it ran aground. The loss also has to do with the fact that that shipping company no longer sends vessels to Belize. In fact the economic losses are that that cargo is now going to Santo Tomas and that cargo is trucked to Belize. There is a loss of that so the stevedores don’t make any money off it. Whatever the other income that would be derived from that, the pilotage, and the Port doesn’t make money because the vessel doesn’t come. So I think without trying to get into why Port Authority is doing this, it really would have negative effects.”

Lloyd Jones,
“I think that is a question that the Belizean people will have to answer. They will have to ask themselves that question. You have a ship that comes to our country and because of recklessness destroys our barrier reef, an irreplaceable piece of our heritage. That is a question for the Belizean people to answer. Can you as a Belizean go to any other country and destroy their heritage? You tell me.

As the Port Commissioner I am concerned at the frequency of the groundings. And in both instances I conducted enquires and it appears to me that there was no care in the world on the part of the crew; that they are not paying the kind of attention that they should be paying when they are navigating in confined waters. That is my concern and the law is the law. If the Belizean law says you cannot come in here and do this and somebody with reckless abandon does so, then shouldn’t we apply the law?”

So the news tonight is that the Caribe Mariner is still at the Belize City port and it will be moved by the Port Authority tomorrow. Again – the ship was being loaded and unloaded at the time of its arrest. There are 20 containers of papaya that were supposed to be transported to Miami. Those are now in limbo. So too is the day’s work for 15 stevedores who showed up to work this morning but had to return home. The Westerhaven which was held in Belize for close to a month sailed out last Saturday.