Yesterday, the Belize Network of NGO's put out a press release complaining that the Government is putting enough priority on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing that continues to happen in Belizean territorial waters.
They say that for years, and across government administrations of the 2 major political parties, there has been a draft Fisheries Resources Bill. It was created to strengthen the country's enforcement against illegal fishing, which tends to happen more frequently near the country's borders. The problem is that even with all that time to perfect it, none of the recent administrations have taken the necessary steps to pass the draft legislation into law.
So, why hasn't that happened yet? That's what we asked the Fisheries Administrator today when we met her at another event this morning. Here's how that conversation went:
Beverly Wade - Fisheries Administrator
"Illegal fishing undermines all the positive advances that you make in fisheries management. As the BNN pointed, and the Fisheries Department is in total agreement with that because we are the champions of that bill, that we have an adequate regulatory framework in place that serves as a true deterrent to illegal fishing. It's not only a bill about increased fines or additional enforcement power by regulatory agencies. But, what the bill does is it creates a new framework that is modernized and that incorporates the ecosystem's approach to fisheries, where it encourages or promotes more co-responsibility from the users, and to look at how do you now manage and plan fisheries management with the considerations of the social aspects of it, to now ensure compliance at the end of the day."
"So the bill is an excellent piece of legislation, and we're looking forward to its passage very soon."
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