Three Honduran nationals were detained Thursday night after their vessel was intercepted near Gladden Spit during a joint operation targeting illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The Belize Coast Guard's Maritime Enforcement Team, supported by a drone unit, spotted the vessel fishing in a spawning aggregation area. After the vessel attempted to evade authorities, a chase ensued and the Coast Guard successfully intercepted it. Rear Admiral Soberanis explained further:
Gregory Soberanis, Rear Admiral - BCG
"So the Belize Coast Guard, along with its partners, fisheries department and the NGOs themselves, have been focusing our efforts on the issue of illegal fishing in our southern waters. Over this weekend, we were able to intercept a vessel from Honduras with three individuals on board that were eventually detained and handed over to the police in Independence. This initiative is an initiative that we've been working on for quite some time, given that that particular area in our southern waters have been targeted a lot by fisher folks from Honduras and even Guatemala. And so along with our partners, we have redesigned our strategy as to how we're going to address this particular issue. And as you can see, over the weekend, it proved to be successful. And so through the collaborative and unified efforts with our partners, we were able to make a successful intercept, and eventually three Honduran nationals were detained. And I believe they are being processed through the courts this morning by the fisheries department."
Reporter
"We've been seeing a lot of this recently with different Hondurans in our waters, illegally fishing. Would you be able to comment on, when you look at the grander scale of things, how does this impact our entire fisheries industry by having these persons on the water constantly?"
Gregory Soberanis, Rear Admiral - BCG
"Well, it definitely has an impact. And hence the reason why we've, like I said, we've redesigned our operational approach to how we can mitigate the illegal activities that occurs in our southern waters. As you know, Belize is one of the countries that really has a gold standard for how we manage our marine resources, how we manage our fishery stock. And so the key agencies that has the responsibility for the stewardship and governance for marine parks and the environment has really made tremendous stride in ensuring that we protect the national maritime interests for the country of Belize."
The operation was carried out in collaboration with the Fisheries Department, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the Southern Environmental Association (SEA) as part of ongoing efforts to combat illegal fishing in Belize's southern waters.
