It's a sharp turn in events - just yesterday the Northern Explorer was conducting seismic surveys, meaning that it was blasting pressurized air unto the sea floor near San Pedro.

But in what has to be called an inspiring show of people power, San Pedranos came out in numbers yesterday to make their extreme displeasure known at a consultation hosted by the Ministry of Tourism. The Area Representative Manuel Junior Heredia got his marching orders from the community and told the Prime Minister that the islanders weren't going to stand for it. So, the government quickly had to wheel and come again, and within two hours announced that seismic operations had been suspended. Government says that it will suspend those operations until consultations can be conducted. With that, the MV Northern Explorer got a directive to cease seismic operations immediately.

That about turn surely costly someone a lot of money, and today a Texas based advocacy group representing what is called the "geophysical industry" sent out a release saying quote, "Environmental activist groups have increasingly used misinformation targeting geophysical surveys in an effort to halt oil and gas exploration and development. One such example…is their recent propaganda attempts to mislead the Belizean community to believe that seismic surveys are harmful to marine life and threaten fishing and tourism. These allegations are simply false."

It adds, quote, "Their assertions are speculative and anecdotal at best, pointing to what might or may occur, but has not occurred after more than 50 years of global seismic data acquisition."