Fisher folk in the Toledo District have come together in opposition
to fishing contracts that were allegedly granted to three Jamaican companies
to mass export Belizean fish on the world market. In a letter to Minister of
Fisheries Rene Montero, the South Coast Citizens for Sustainable Development
wrote specifically about a 15 year contract signed on September 2nd between
the Rio Grande Fishermen’s Cooperative Society and PG Maheries Company
Limited – a company allegedly owned by three Jamaican nationals.
In the 12 page contract, the Jamaicans will be allowed to import two
large fishing vessels along with a “specialized” crew, and more
importantly – the rights to access fish outside the barrier reef. Under
the agreement, 85% of the fish harvested from Belizean waters will be solely
for the export market. Those conditions in the contract have led to concerns
from fisher folk in the area who are already grappling with a depleted fish
stock. They held a town meeting this afternoon in Punta Gorda Town. Our team
was there and Keith Swift
has this report.
Guadalupe Lampsella, Fisher Folk - Riversdale
“I am so mad about what is going on.”
Guadalupe Lampsella and these other fisher folk from Toledo are mad, angry,
and concerned about the presence of these Jamaican registered and owned fishing
boats loaded with traps which have been docked near Front Street in Punta Gorda
Town since Saturday.
Guadalupe Lampsella,
“My concern is about these fishermen and the boat from Jamaica coming
into the waters of Belize for fishing. I don’t think we need any more
fishermen, we have more than enough right here in Belize. We don’t need
anyone either to come and teach us to fish. I don’t care if they are from
Jamaica, if they are from Guatemala, or if they are from Honduras or Mexico.
We don’t need any more fishermen here in Belize. We have enough.”
Eloy Cuevas, Monkey River
“This agreement that has been draft up with Rio Grande Cooperative 
and the Jamaican company, I think they should have consultation meeting with
the fishing communities around southern Belize before that agreement was signed
because this won’t just affect Punta Gorda Town fisher folk. This will
affect the entire southern part of the country, the whole country on a whole
this will affect down the road.”
Martin Reyes, Punta Gorda Town
“According to the agreement, they will buy fish for $2.50 a pound.
In Belize fish right here in PG is $4 a pound and fillet is $6 a pound. In Belize
City it is $8 or $9 a pound for fillet. So why would we go down backward instead
of going forward? We are looking to go forward. We are not looking to go backward.
What we intend to do is to make them move from here and go back to Jamaica because
they don’t have nothing to give anybody in Belize. They are just taking
from we and we tired of people coming here just grabbing and going. We want
good for ourselves and we rather leave the fishes there for our grandchildren
and our children’s children for the next thirty or forty years.”
Daniel Castellanos, Monkey River
“We don’t want no foreign company come destroy our area. I think
Jamaica, they caused what they have right now. They got foreign companies to
fish in their waters, they destroyed what all they have, and now they want to
come and destroy our areas. I would ask the Minister of the Fisheries Department 
to don’t allow those guys to fish in our waters.”
Eloy Cuevas,
“All of us know that our marine products they are going down, they
are declining very rapidly and by increasing the fishing pressure it will just
take it down much faster and this is what we don’t want.”
Martin Reyes,
“We want them out because we need we fish for ourselves. We don’t
need to send our fish nowhere. What I would want is for them to help some of
the fishermen to uplift themselves and our own Belizeans can help each other
for them to uplift themselves. They are talking about renting or selling boats
to the local fishermen, we have our own type of boat because their boat look
cranky and that is not the type of boat you use in these waters.”
Guadalupe Lampsella,
“I would just hope that our Prime Minister would listen to us. Please
Mr. Barrow, please listen to us: we really want these guys out of Belize. We
don’t want these Jamaican fisherpersons with these boats and traps here
in Belize. We don’t want that. We would like the government of Belize
to stop that immediately.”
But according to government nothing has started -at least not yet. Senior Fisheries
Officer George Myvette was at this afternoon’s meeting and he says no
license has been granted.
George Myvette, Senior Fisheries Officer
“No license has been granted to the Jamaican operation in Belizean
waters. As far as we know they have essentially come the process of being admitted
in Belize, they have gone through Customs, they have gone through Immigration,
but there has been no application for license to fish in Belizean waters.”
Keith Swift,
“So there is still a possibility they can get a license?”
George Myvette,
“The conversation that we’ve had with the Minister is that Cabinet
has made a decision not to accommodate the fishing arrangement. This is not
necessarily saying that Cabinet does not agree with the joint venture. We are
simply saying that as far as extracting the fisheries resources is concerned,
especially by foreign parties, this will not be accommodated from a policy perspective.”
The September 2nd contract was witnessed by a fisheries officer but
again Senior Fisheries Officer George Myvette says that doesn’t make it
official. But even if it was, this morning on Krem Radio - Prime Minister Dean
Barrow voiced his disapproval to the terms in the contract. It is important
to note that the agreement or the contract was signed with the Rio Grande Fishermen’s
Cooperative which is a Belizean group of fishermen. Again 85% of the fish produced
by the cooperative would be for the export market. One of the other two contracts
under scrutiny is reportedly with Rainforest Seafoods in Independence.
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