Our next story is about the New River, its crocodile inhabitants, and the pollution that's turned them both ghostly white and increasingly sickly, often more dead than alive or "Zombiefied", if you will.
The situation is one that the Crocodile Research Coalition has spent the last few years monitoring closely, and, last night, our 7 News team scanned the dark and dank river with with them in the search for some zombie crocs - animals so far gone that they are more a subject of study than they are animals that can be rescued. Cherisse Halsall has the story but we warn animal lovers and nature enthusiasts that some of the imagery might be a little disturbing:
But, he never left Miami because the FBI intercepted him there and charged him for attempted interference with commerce by extortion. This is after he was accused of attempting to extort $1 million dollars from Chris Williams, an American developer developing a real estate project in northern Belize.
The New River, it's the largest self-contained river in Belize, spanning from here in the eastern Orange Walk District all the way to The Corozal Bay.
The mighty waterway was once the pride of the north, but in the past 5 to 10 years, it's become known as a river in a state of ruin, befouled by pollution.
For the fish, reptiles, amphibians and organisms that live in this river, it's been totally devastating. The effects of pollution has especially been seen in the crocodiles which scientists say have become "zombified". We wanted to find out more about that phenomenon , so late last night into the early morning, we headed out with the Crocodile Research Coalition for one of their crocodile surveys.
And what a sight to behold, the undaunted, curious, and passionate Marissa Tellez on the conservation hunt for a croc.
It's a job that takes tons of bravery, tons, of stamina, and even some flexibility.
And when it comes to hauling the croc onto the boat, it also takes physical strength.
Here are the observations Dr Tellez made about this American Morlets hybrid native to the New River
Dr Marissa Tellez, Founder CRC
"That metallic blue was like the first sign of the long-term exposure and negative impact of the chemicals in the water."
It meant that the zombification of this 5-6 year old croc had begin to take root.
But metallic skin aren't the only sign of the pollution that the Crocs are living within. We saw that with this little one-year-old, just a year out from having been a hatchling.
Dr Marissa Tellez, Founder CRC
"It does seem just like that is just extra weight on this animal. It's extra drag, so you can imagine if they are trying to go after something it's just slowing them down."
"And that can affect their ability to properly feed and just function as well."
The purpose of these captures is to characterise, identify, and monitor the health of the animals living in this part of Orange Walk's new River.
In close proximity to the BSI Sugar factory
But what about those Zombie Crocs? We were lucky enough to see one swimming last night but it swam away before we could snare it.
This is one that Jonatan Triminio found a few weeks back, it was completely unresponsive.
But the biggest and most famous "Zombie Croc" has to be the One who ate Bruno.
Dr Marissa Tellez, Founder CRC
"It's actually this crocodile that gave us the red flag that something was going on in the river. We conducted a necropsy on this crocodile within hours of it passing away and when we opened up this crocodile all the muscles were disintegrated, organs were disintegrated, the kidneys were falling through our hands, the intestinal lining, in this crocodile had turned to mush, so this crocodile had been dying for months but yet it was still alive.
"We couldn't even try to find the kidneys, I mean it was just goop and so that with having organs disintegrated like this that is a sign that this animal was constantly exposed to some type of pollution."
But what exactly is in the new river that's making the crocs so sick?
Dr Marissa Tellez, Founder CRC
"I actually think it's a cocktail of various different types of agrochemicals as well as heavy metals that are causing the issues that we are seeing here in the new river."
"We need to export these tissue samples so that we can actually look at. The concentration of various agrochemicals as well as heavy metals because that will give us the scientific data to say this is what is in the river and possibly connect us to the source of the pollution hopefully then we can go to government."
"Everything that we are looking at with crocodiles is not just for crocodile conservation. This is about the conservation of all wildlife. The crocodiles are sort of that canary in the coal mine that's letting us know what is going on."
Tellez and Triminio insist that this project goes far beyond crocs, or even wildlife, it's ultimately about keeping the health and livelihoods of the human population many of whom depend on the once life-giving water of the new river for their very survival.
The CRC is encouraging the public to get involved and volunteers are welcome to join eco-hearts, a non-profit that carries out garbage clean-ups on the new river.
Alternatively the brave at heart can sign up to volunteer with the CRC and go out with them on one of their nighttime crocodile surveys.
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