300 delegates form 30 countries are in Belize for the 59th meeting of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute. They are here to discuss the shared fisheries resources of this region, and according to Dr. Jeremy Jackson, Belize's fish stock is under sustained attack, which is not quite the view of a senior fisherman, Carlton Bernard Jack Young. Here are the views of both experts.
Dr. Jeremy Jackson,
"The resources of the Caribbean are diminished to a degree that I think people find almost impossible to believe but historical data clearly shows that catch in many different parts of the world were vastly greater than they are now. In Belize for example the fishers fished on the grouper spawning aggregation sites and many of those sites were eliminated in a period of just ten years or so. The government of Belize acted a year or so ago to protect the few remaining spawning aggregation sites that were left. That is unimaginable in the history of this country when those kind of fish were thought to exist in infinite supply and they simply don't anymore.
What has to be done to actually really protect the resource is first of all to accept that the problem is an enormous problem, to be realistic a about it, and recognize that wishful thinking is not going to make the problem go away. And what that means is that people have to stop doing some of the things they have been doing in the past. It becomes necessary to stop all fishing in large regions for long periods of time, ten years or more, in order for the populations to recuperate.
If fishing is not regulated strongly, and if other harmful activities to the environment, it is not just a matter of fishing, but also land use, the cutting of mangrove and the cutting of all of it, if that doesn't stop or if that isn't regulated, then the environment will become ugly, the water will become dirty, there won't be any fishes, and you are not going to have any tourists coming to the country. So it is a choice that has to be made for the greater common good and it is up to the people of Belize to make that decision."
Carlton Bernard Jack Young, Fisherman
"I am not a scientist or a biologist but my belief is that the atmosphere has a lot to do with what is happening too. This global warming and things like that because most fishes, when the water gets too warm, they go deeper to look for cooler water. So that could be one of the things."
Jules Vasquez,
Snappers, King Fish, Groupers, and that sort of thing, are they as plentiful as they were when you were fishing in the, I guess you started in the 60s and 70s?
Carlton Bernard Jack Young,
"No but these are migrating fish and people in different countries are doing things that kind of deplete the stock too so when they pass through, that amount doesn't pass through here anymore because in Belize we are not doing that type of fishing that will affect those fishes because we don't use long line, we don't use nets."
The event runs until next weekend and is being held at the Princess Hotel and Casino.
