And from those ugly scenes, we go out to the sea, where fisheries officers made two massive busts over the weekend.
The first set of fishermen were found with an illegal catch, including parrot and triggerfish. The second set were actually caught inside a marine conservation zone.
Combined, these men will be facing hundreds of thousands of fines and those at the Fisheries Department, and at the Ministry of The Blue Economy, are hoping that this case will serve as both a warning and a deterrent for others thinking of doing the same.
Today, both the Supervisor at the Enforcement Unit and the CEO in the ministry held a press conference. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Five fishermen will be faced with fines in the thousands after they were busted with illegal catch by Fisheries Officers yesterday.
The first bust happened around 3:40 in the afternoon, when the officers saw a boat moored about a mile southeast of Hat Caye on the Lighthouse Reef Atoll.
Hampton Gamboa, Supervisor, Enforcement Unit
"There, officers engaged three officers who were on a vessel cleaning products. Upon searching the vessel, they found couple fin fish and some fillet which were legal in their ice box. Upon a thorough search of the vessel, lifting up of the plank, inside the vessel, they discovered a white crocus sack that appeared to be fish fillet. Officers opened the bag and there were primarily 74 spotlight parrot fish fillets, there were two other midnight parrot fish. In addition, there were twelve pieces of angelfish and eight pieces of ocean trigger fish, all of which is part of species protection under the new fisheries resource act."
"They'll be charged for possession of these, in addition to that, there was 68 pieces of fish fillet without skin patch. Because those didn't have on skin patch, those fall under another section of our law, the new fine which was just released earlier this year of 50 to 100 dollars per, that's for fishes without skin patch."
And according to the new fisheries act, they can be charged $1,000 per piece, and an additional 50 to 100 dollars for not having the skin patch.
And the other two fishermen caught near the Glover's Reef will also be facing hefty charges.
Hampton Gamboa, Supervisor, Enforcement Unit
"Those two individuals there, they are facing the fine of four different fisheries offense that occurred. Fishing inside a conservation zone. Primarily, fishing inside a conservation zone is a minimum of five thousand dollars."
"Then in addition to that, they were found with 61 undersized conch in the shell. For that, they'll be fined a minimum of two thousand dollars once it's within the marine reserve."
"One individual because he was found inside the marine reserve without having a fishing license, that's a minimum fine of $5,000 too. So that's what these two individuals are looking at."
And the CEO in the Ministry of The Blue Economy sent out a warning for anyone else who may be thinking of committing fisheries offenses: "we will find you."
Kennedy Carrillo, CEO, Ministry of The Blue Economy
"We know that many of the persons that are engaging in this are very well aware that the activity is illegal but that is why they go out at 10:30 at night, because they are under the assumption that they are doing it at a time when there are no enforcement officers but we want people to know that we are taking out responsibility very seriously and that our enforcement officers are there with greater presence than ever before. We're also working with our officers out at the different marine protected area in this case for example, out at Lighthouse Reef, working in coordination with the Coast Guard, it is a massive effort to be able to cut down on this illegal activity."
"I will be the first to say that we recognize that there is a livelihood matter, that there are concerns in terms of people saying, well this is our livelihood. But you're working yourself out of your livelihood when you are engaging in this type of illegal fishing in these areas that should be protected."
And according to Gamboa, after the court case is completed, they will be donating the seafood caught, preferably to feeding programs in Belize City that assist the most needy.
