Last month, the Briceno Government tabled and passed their Fisheries Resources ( Amendment) Bill of 2022. The amendment was specifically made to increase the fines for persons found guilty of breaking the fisheries law. Tonight, a group of 5 fishermen from Chunox Village in the Corozal District are facing a total fine of over 30 thousand dollars for being in possession of undersized conchs under that amendment.
The authorities say that they were in possession of 509 undersized conchs just before the Easter Holiday weekend. Last week Tuesday, a joint law enforcement effort was launched at sea. The enforcement team included representatives of the Belize Audubon Society, The Belize Fisheries Department and the Belize Police Department. They boarded the vessel, "Sianely", to conduct a search for illegal fisheries products.
On board the vessel at the time were 60-year-old Elias Chavez, 21-year-old Neider Hener Santoya, 26-year-old Edgar Isael Chan, 36-year-old Abimael Amin Santoya, and 22-year-old Francisco Javier Mai. The law enforcement team searched the entire boat, and they ended up finding 509 undersized conchs.
All 5 fishermen were arraigned today before Magistrate Baja Shoman, and they accepted guilt for the various fisheries offenses they were charged with. They admitted to the court that they knew that the fisheries products were illegal because they were undersized. They claimed that they were taking the conchs home to their family for use in Ceviche during the Easter Holiday.
They were all fined individually for the offenses, and they each were fined for a portion of the undersized conchs. As viewers are aware, each individual conch attracts its own fine. So, when the tally was concluded, the court ended up ordering them to a collective fine of $30,300. But, that total could have been even bigger, if the magistrate decided to slap them with the maximum penalty under the law.
