On Monday, we told you about the failed Supreme Court challenge which the Belize Fishermen Cooperative Association brought against the permanent ban on gillnets. The gill net advocates want to overturn Statutory Instrument #158 of 2020, which the former UDP Minister, Omar Figueroa, signed in November of last year to implement the ban.
Their attorney argued that government's consultation process with them as stakeholders was inadequate. Justice Westim James carefully considered their arguments, but ruled that they were adequately consulted and that they did not have an arguable case for judicial review.
So while, the judge dismissed their lawsuit, they still have a 19-day window in which they can lodge an appeal. This morning, we spoke with the executive director of the Belize Fishermen Cooperative Association and we asked him pointedly if his membership is agitating for that. He told us that there is a democratic process in which the membership will have to decide that as a collective:
Sydney Fuller - Executive Director, BFCA
"Certainly, we are fully against the ban, and we remain like that. I'll be having a meeting over the weekend with the fishers to discuss further how we move from where. I spoke to the attorney, and we're having a meeting sometime tomorrow. I just got a copy of the printed decision this morning. My attorney got it late yesterday, sometime in the afternoon, and she called me. She sent a copy, and I just got that. I haven't been through it, and she hasn't been through it as well. So, we'll be going over this hopefully tomorrow. And I'll be meeting with the fishers from the southern part of Belize over the weekend."
"We still believe that we need to continue using our gillnets, and fishers are certainly of that opinion, like me. So, [for] the meeting for the weekend, I will have to update them where we are, hear what they want, and then, we're going to move from there."
We'll keep following the story, and tell you if they do decide to take it to a higher court.
