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Tonight the story is about gill nets again, specifically gill nets thrown by Guatemalan fishers in Belize's southern waters. The Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV) and Sea Daft Tours encountered a group of Guatemalans with gill nets illegally fishing within Belizean territory.
Will Maheia of the BTV says that upon approaching the site, the fishermen fled the area and they were left to remove the gillnets and the entrapped lobsters, conch and fish from its contents.
Here's Maheia's angry, emotional reaction when he was hauling up the nets:
Now, Belize banned Gillnets back in 2020 and urged the public to report on fishers still using them.
The area in which the illegal fishermen were found is said to be patrolled routinely by TIDE Rangers, The Belize Coast guard and the Fisheries Department. The BTV urges GOB to be more diligent in assigning active enforcement units within these areas to prevent more illegal fishing activities from happening.
