The Coalition for Sustainable Fisheries hosted a press conference at the Radisson today to present key information and findings about the detrimental effects the use of gill nets have on marine resources and the economy. Now organizations like OCEANA have been rallying for gill nets to be banned and today's event was held to ramp up the public pressure. The Coalition along with its partners believe that the data they have collected and will present to the Gill net task force will help their cause. Here is more from OCEANA's vice president about the realities of gill net fishing and what they hope to accomplish.
Janelle Chanona - Vice President, OCEANA
"We have been pushing for a very long time to get the data that we shared today because obviously making informed decisions are critical and in terms of our position we wanted this data so we know exactly who are using this gear, how any of them are using them legally so we can identify for ourselves how much we would need to bring to the table to make sure they do not get lost so they can be supported because the coalition as a team agrees that no license Belizean fisherman should suffer any undue stress in providing for his family with dignity. We want Belizeans to benefit from Belizean shared national resources. Remember the number one user of this gear are illegal fishers and we believe the primary percentage of that are trans boundary fishers who are coming into Belize to take out our resources as quickly but amassing a large quantity as much as they can and then taking that out and that is what is the problem with that gear it takes out a lot in a very short period of time and we are going to be left with the consequences because as one fisher told us very succinctly when they are finished depriving and depleting our resources they will go home where will the Belizeans fisher go. Certainly as I said being able to have this data has allowed us to make sure that we will be able to present a very complete picture and a very incentivizing offer to those fishers who are licensed and who will be impacted by this policy change."
"The idea is in terms of what we are already looking at if it is an outright ban, any and everybody who is on the sea that sees a gill net on a boat that sees a gill net deployed that sees a gill net set at a river mouth or in any area, will be able to say that is an illegal net, it is not a process of going through to see if it is a tag, let me measure the mesh to see if it is correct, let me make sure the tag corresponds to the fishing folk license."
We also spoke to a representative of the sport fishing association who says he has found alternative methods like bottom fishing, using hand-lines or rods. The Director for the Belize Federation of Fishers Nigel Martinez also weighed in on the issue and pledged his support of this ban.
Eworth Garbutt - Rep, National Sport Fishing Association
"100 percent against gill net fishing but also want to say this 100 percent with the gill net fisherman finding the best alternative I am a living example of alternatives, it does exist and there wasn't OCEAN to back us up or no one. I left it because I knew the future was very dull. A good example I like to give is like if we are saying that cigarette is bad and it is killing people but you know we say we will still leave it like in the plane back in the days, they used to have a smoking and non-smoking area, you put the curtain and you see the people up in the first class you guys I want you to live long you guys don't smoke but the people at the back can smoke it don't work that way, gill net is indiscriminate you are still catching the cancer regardless where you sit whether you area directly doing it or on the other side getting the negative impact."
Nigel Martinez - Director, Belize Federation of Fishers
"We represent 12 fishers association across this country and each of our fishers association has recognized that this gear is indiscriminate so we have decided to put our position to join the coalition to ensure we be a part of the change."
So the team will put together all the data and recommendations into a proposal and present it to the Gill net taskforce and then the Ministry of Fisheries will respond. There is no date or timeline set as to when the proposal will be presented.
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