Over the years, we haven't heard much about licensing of boats even though there are provisions in the law for it. Now it seems that there will be enforcement of those provisions. The Belize Ports Authority is informing the public that starting next month there will be operations conducted to ensure that boat owners have licenses for their vessels. Deputy Harbor Master Victor Castillo explains.
Victor Castillo, Deputy Harbor Master
"Just lately, couple months ago, they had a lot of increase in vessel theft and so we need to put this into our data and we are working on this together with the police so we could apprehend or find these people's vessels. The penalty is a maximum of a $1,000 and the minimum is $500 and 6 months in prison. If anything happens to you out there we have a 999 emergency number at the Communications Center that we have in place and we need to inform the public that this number is only for emergency purposes."
Operations will begin on the 1st of July. Boat licenses are issued for $30.
