Last Friday, you heard the Minister of Natural Resources say that they're taking the concerns of the tour guides in the south seriously when it comes to Will Bauer Flats, otherwise known as Angelfish Caye. Without that area, the livelihoods of fly fishing guides, and the industry on a whole, will be severely affected. This morning on Sunup on 7, Fisheries Scientist, Dr Addiel Perez, emphasized that the Placencia residents, who use the flats frequently, were never consulted. And tour guide Eworth Garbutt reiterated that they're planning to prevent any development once the current suspension is lifted.
Dr Addiel Perez, Fisheries Scientist/Program Manager, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust
"One of the most important things that we need to consider is that stakeholders need to be involved and in this case as Eworth has mentioned, they made their concern known from the beginning, the minute those pegs were installed there so even in the EIA, that is a pubic document that everyone can access, it states there that only Dangriga and Hopkins were consulted, Placencia was not considered even though the fact that the tour guide association from Placencia already sent a letter to them expressing their concern, expressing that this is an important flats to them because they make a livelihood from it and they're making all of these profits. Just one day of fishing for one of them there, they're making at least, based on economic studies that we have conducted, at least $900US to $1,000US per day and that amount of money trickles down in the local economy, where they come, they stay at a hotel, they buy food, they travel, everything, and all of those things go back into our economy so whenever we see a development in the EIA, because it's stated there, it's stated that the communities will benefit from this project and it will create jobs and employments. The stakeholders are expressing their concern, 1. they will lose their habitat, they will lose their corals, their seagrass, their mangroves, which they depend on and they will lose their economy because they will no longer be able to fish in those areas."
Eworth Garbutt, Ag. President, BFFA
"I'm getting calls from all over and I'll reiterate again that if the government doesn't stop it and stop it clean, we're not going anywhere. The dredging won't happen, we won't allow it to happen, but more than the dredging, we won't allow any development to happen. If you heard from the young man, it's critical for me, as young as I am, I feel like I'm old now because I have seen all these flats pristine. Belize gotta be careful here, let's be authentic, those mangrove islands are sweet. We gotta advise the businessmen coming over that we don't have to try to be like Cancun, Seychelles, we don't need the white sand, we need to have a new pristine look at the way forward for attractive tourism industry."
Sunup repeats at 8:00 tonight on Chanel 7.
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