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In celebration of World Maritime day under the theme "MARPOL at 50- Our Commitment Goes on", the Belize Port Authority today hosted its annual maritime educational expo. Various Maritime agencies were invited to come out and present information and promotional items to school children and other invited guests. Jomarie Lanza was there:
There are a variety of exciting careers in Belize's Maritime sector. And what better way to showcase this to school children than through a Maritime informational Expo, timed to coincide with National Maritime day.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities & Logistics
"So what were are doing out here today is an educational expo where we have invited the community to come out and you'll see a lot of students here. To come out and see the different stakeholders in the Maritime industry, so we are really trying to highlight to them this sector and also encouraging some of them to perhaps take up careers in the maritime sector."
While there are many discussions being held about the expansion of the cruise ship industry, MARPOL has seen its 50th year in operation and is focusing more towards implementing preventative measures to mitigate pollution from ships at sea.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities & Logistics
"We are really governed by the MARPOL convention which directs about waste and how you are going to dispose of the fuel you use on the ship, the air pollution, the garbage you generate. And so the MARPOL convention really governs how that happens. In Belize we have The Department of Environment which is in charge of making sure that the stipulations of the convention are enforced. We also have the coastal Management Zone, we also have the Belize Port Authority. So you have a number of agencies across the board who are looking to enforce these provisions."
A total of 20 different Maritime agencies were showcased in the Expo. From the Belize Coast guard to the Belize Port Authority and Fisheries Department, each agency plays a critical role in the industry."
Jaeda Sutherland, Project and Research Officer
"The whole purpose of our booth today is to highlight Belize Port Authority, we also want to highlight the entire Maritime industry so we brought out some of the stuff that we use on the daily that we want to highlight. We want to highlight basically show students out here that the maritime is very huge. It's a very vast industry and it's growing and we want to encourage them to jump into industry right. So we are out here and we want to highlight blue economy, BPA, we want to highlight coast guard and all these other maritime agencies out here basically to show them that hey this is a career opportunity for you guys you don't have to have to go to teh call centers or just customs and immigrations they are out here but you know we want to show them that hey we are offering you guys a career come and learn about it."
Marsha Vargas, Assistant Fisheries Officer
"On display at our booth right now we have coasters we have the little wrist bands we have water bottles and little tote bags, and stuff like that so when the students they come and we ask any questions, simple questions about lobster Fin fish, conch and they answer correctly we give them a prize."
Reporter:
So apart from promotional items tell us what your entity is really
Marsha Vargas, Assistant Fisheries Officer
"The Belize fisheries department is a government body that manages and supervise the fishing industry more or less and we have a unit that deals with giving the license to the fisher folk, commercial boat license also. We have our capture fish unit that deals with doing analysis of data so when you hear there is a conch quote and things like that we are the people that normally deals with that. We also have an educational unit, the CCU they do enforcement they are the ones that out on the waters and makes sure that illegal stuff are not happening and they do persecution and stuff like that so fisheries is just that body that encompasses, enforcement, education and anything that has to do with the capture of fisheries in belize which refers to the wild capture of fishes inland or at sea."
More than 150 students attended the expo.
