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Making Manatees Safer In the Sea
Fri, December 15, 2017
For years, manatees have been tormented by boats, whose motor blades often injure them in passing.

But, determined groups are working together to make a change for the manatees - and they're doing that by creating awareness in the people who use boats most: commercial boat captains and tour guides.

Today the fourth annual workshop was held for these vessels operators. Lead Presenter Jamal Galvez told us more.

Jamal Galvez, Sea to Shore Alliance Program Coordinator/Research Biologist
"We are providing them with information that they can actually use on their tours to their tourists. Data that they can present. The knowledge we will share between the results of the research that we are collecting. We are sharing with them so that they can know what their implications are and how they can contribute positively to a manatee conservation in Belize. It has mutual benefits here because they depend on these animals for tourism that goes hand in hand with conservation."

"Once they understand that I think that we can have this wildlife around us for a long time and we can continue to make tour guides make money from off these tours and stuff like that."

"Our efforts are not specific to tour guides. It is countrywide. It is to the lady at the shop. In all school. We try our best to give them this knowledge from a young age so that they are aware of these implications and know about it from a young age."

The workshop was held in collaboration with the Belize Tourism Board, The Forestry Department, and the Port Authority.

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