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Earlier you heard the Ports Commissioner agree that it was a learning moment for them, failure to give that advance notice sent a lot of Belizeans into panic mode. Oceana Belize's president, Janelle Chanona, said her phone had been blowing up and she spent the better part of the day trying to get any information she could. However, she added that the silver lining is that they are able to confirm that even now, Belizeans are still very much against any form of offshore oil drilling. She told us more via Zoom today.
Janelle Chanona, President, Oceana Belize
"I knew it wasn't going to be good when about 9:30 this morning, my phone started making all sort of noises and I picked it up and I had 45 messages from my contacts in San Pedro, several of them are sharing photos, they're asking me to find out what this is and why is an oil rig here, they already had the MV tracker app going and they could tell me the name of the boat and so they knew what it was and I was grateful I was sitting down, I was as shocked as they were, and just really concerned of what is happening. So I reached out to the Ministry of Blue Economy about 9:30, I reached out to anybody I could think about that could let us know quickly what was happening."
"Finally we got through to the Port Authorities and so we reached out back to Ambergris Today who had initially posted the first set of photos and we said okay, you asked us to help with information, here's what we found out. It is a rig, it is in Belizeans waters and then we were able to subsequently update that the port was saying that it was transiting and it was going to head back out because of a legal issue on the Mexican side. But I think what this whole incident does, if anybody was uncertain of just how this industry and how offshore oil on a whole plays into our local dynamic, I think think incident really shows that some thought should have been given into the fact that this isn't just a vessel, this is an oil rig and that it would have caused concern for people seeing it and talking to the fishermen and they were just, as I've said, in complete shock. So it's unfortunate that that advance notice was not given but I will say it's been helpful in terms of being able to document where Belizeans are on this and I think it really goes to show that nobody wants any surprises when it comes to this issue and that until we have those safeguards in place then one day we could be waking up to an oil rig on our horizon and then you know it would be too late to be involved in decisions around that issue. "
The vessel is currently on its way to English Caye and will arrive by 6am, after which it will depart after 6 hours.
