MAR Alliance, a marine oriented conservation organization, has been operating in Belize since 2007. They've been conducting research at lighthouse reef atoll, maintaining partnerships with other marine NGO's and stakeholders, promoting conservation and protection of Marine Wildlife in Belize. Today they hosted their first annual general meeting to discuss and share information between the organization and its partners. We spoke with the Founder of MAR Alliance today at the meeting in addition to one of their members, a fisherman with decades of experience.
Dr Rachel Graham, Founder of MAR Alliance
"We are so excited because this is the first time we've had a big broad annual general meeting for MAR Alliance Belize so we are both a local NGO and an international NGO and we never had to do a big AGM here in Belize before and this first AGM brought together fishers government officials funders our board and many other sectors."
"So it's really important for all of us to come together at a meeting like this because people can get the latest information on what we've been doing not only over the past year but also since the creation of MAR alliance because not a lot of people exactly know who we are so really what we are trying to do is the research the training and also the building of inspiration for threatened species like the sharks the rays the turtles the big fin fish that live a long time and working with fishers and fishing communities to ensure their persistence in survival over many years and many generations."
Benedicto Perez, Fisherman, Mar Alliance member
"So what I do in Mar Alliance is I help with the Data collecting out in the field in the waters, swimming, in the transects especially in the transects. What we do is collect all the data of this species , most of it is like the commercial species . Also the BRUVS which is the bated underwater videos we set the cameras underwater so that whatever we don't see in the transects maybe the cameras can record and we can have more data."
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