7 News Belize

The Coast Guard Is Strong At Seven
posted (November 30, 2012)
Ten years ago - if you had a maritime emergency or a crime on the seas - you'd call the BDF Maritime Unit.

But 7 years ago, those duties were handed over to a then fledgling Coast Guard. Since then, with major funding and support from the US Government, that law enforcement agency has moved from strength to strength - with a few hiccups along the way.

Today it celebrated those strengths in a seventh anniversary celebration. Monica Bodden was there:...

Monica Bodden reporting
The Belize Coast Guard was formed on the twenty eight of November 2005 - and ever since then - they have commemorated their anniversary annually.

This year marks their 7th Anniversary - and this morning the official ceremonies were held at the Coast Guard Headquarters on the Western Highway.

The one hundred and fifty two members both men and women were on full display today in front of an audience that included dignitaries and military personnel.

At this morning's ceremony, Captain John Borland, Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard was also promoted to Rear Admiral - the highest rank in the maritime agency.

Admiral John Borland - Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard
"Well there are two accomplishments here today; the 7th year anniversary and my promotion to flag rank as Rear Admiral. The first significance of our anniversary being that the coast guard has been in existence for 7 years now. We started back in November 28, 2005, we are like two days passed the actual formation but circumstance dictated that we do it today."

"What that means is that when my unit which was the Maritime Wing of the Defence Force parted ways and became Coast Guard - we were formed up 54 persons - 44 of us being former military and 10 being policemen. Since then the Coast Guard has grown from strength to strength and we've actually reached an establishment of 152. As I said in my remarks earlier on we are in the process of getting an approval to actually double the strength of the Belize Coast Guard from 152 to 332."

Dubbed as the policemen of the seas - the responsibility of the Belize Coastguard includes all maritime laws at seas.

Admiral John Borland
"Our roles are many. Our responsibilities include the enforcement of all maritime laws at seas - we are actually the policemen of the seas. Many of these responsibilities we carry out we enforce unilaterally but many of them we do on a joint forces concept utilizing the agency concept because for some cases we work on behalf of a competent authority. For example; If we make an arrest for a fisheries violation, the case is turned over to the Fisheries Department to be prosecuted, likewise a drug seizure, interdiction or an arrest - the case is turn over to the police force. We would appear in court as witnesses. The whole chain of custody process lies with us in making sure the case is sound proof when it goes to the courts."

"The Coast Guard as I said performed mainly law enforcement duties but we have a number of humanitarian duties to support the various authorities in disaster response and disaster relief search and rescue evacuation. Then we have our environmental duties of natural resource protection. We work very closely with the Department of the Environment and for maritime safety we work very closely with the Port Authority. We would form joint teams to prosecute any incidents involving the environment - to see if the vessel is grounded, if there is an oil spill - we would put a task force together, we would provide the security and we would provide the initial response but eventually we hand those responsibilities over to the competent authorities be it Port Authority, Environmental Department, Fisheries Department. We worked on behalf of a lot of organizations but we also work independently for many of the law enforcement duties."

Admiral Borland spoke about the continuous growth and development of the organization.

Admiral John Borland
"My promotion to flag rank today to me is important, but if I wasn't promoted ot the rank Rear Admiral - it would have mean nothing to me. I could have been promoted to Rear Admiral 3 years ago but I decided that I was not qualified to be promoted to Rear Admiral and therefore I had to the Navy Royal College - the Navy Command College to get command under my belt and be promotable. The promotion is not a big thing to me. What is important to me is the continuous growth and development of the Coast Guard. The most important resources is our people - to make sure they are well trained, equip and they are prepared and always ready to go whenever the alarm goes up we've got to respond. Every decision we make can result in the loss of a life and that is what we lived by - we stand by our core values and our motto which says that we are ready for anything "UTRINQUE PARATUS," that's how we live."

And before wrapping up this morning's ceremony, members of the Belize Coast Guard gave a special demonstration of what they do.

The Coast Guard's next goal is to double up the number of men and women in uniform.

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