Easter is coming, so all you Good Friday fish finders are probably on the lookout for that choice snapper, kingfish or barrow. But this year, it's probably going to be even more expensive than last, and, yes, that's partly because of easter-time price gouging, but also because supply is getting scarcer, which pushes prices upwards.
The inconvenient truth that many fish-lovers don't want to face is that Belize's waters - though vast and bountiful - are increasingly overfished - and those red snappers you grew up eating? Well, someday, your kids may have to choose Tilapia instead! Janelle Chanona examines this mounting problem in a special report she put together for reef week.
Janelle Chanona Reporting
Fishing has always figured prominently in Belizean cultures. Throughout local history, several coastal communities have directly depended on fishing as the primary source of income. Traditional commercial fishing in Belize is categorized as a 'cottage' industry: single fishermen going out in their boats. Today, fishing is one of Belize's largest employers; approximately three thousand commercially licensed fishers are trolling Belizean waters.
Belizean fishers have extracted thousands of tonnes of lobster, conch and fin fish from our territorial waters. And everyone agrees, the numbers have taken a toll.
Hon. Lisel Alamilla - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development
"The greatest challenge that we face is overfishing in our seas. This is really compounded is that we have encroachment from the Mexicans in the north and the Guatemalans and the Hondurans down South. And that is very difficult to overcome."
To overcome some of the challenges in the fishing industry, Belize implemented seasons, quotas and size limits; banned bottom trawling; restricted the use of gill nets, spear guns, and fish traps; and stepped up enforcement efforts to protect marine products. But the strategy is not enough to replenish stocks. Today fishermen have to race to find favourites and customers have to dig deep to buy fish.
Dr. Melanie McField - Director, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People
"We already know that prices are higher than they used to be, and that's largely a function that there's less. It's getting harder to find. Grouper and snapper are really not the main fish that's being filleted and sold as grouper and snapper. If we want to keep eating the prime things like lobster and conch, we definitely have to look at long term strategies and a whole comprehensive management."
Belize is one of the first countries to implement an ecosystem based fisheries management approach-that is, protecting pockets of each type of marine environment needed to support a healthy fish population. Seventeen marine protected areas have been established in Belizean waters- That's 20% of Belize's territorial sea. But only 2% of that area is protected from fishing.
Dr. Melanie McField
"Two percent of our sea is not enough to rebuild 98%... I think anyone can feel out that math and realize that's just not enough."
Full protection increased from 2 percent to 3 percent in 2012 when the Turneffe Reef Atoll was declared Belize's largest marine protected area.
Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"So from now on, we really should not be declaring any more protected areas; we might need to revisit boundaries, but there will not be a clamouring to declare anymore protected areas. So the focus will really shift into really enforcement; doing more research to understand if we are in fact effectively managing our marine protected areas."
Dr. Melanie McField is the Director of Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. She is advocating for expanding the boundaries of fully-protected zones within the MPAs.
Dr. Melanie McField
"We just need to do more because realistically if you think about what farmers do or foresters, you have to replant. You can't keep taking and taking and not replanting seed. We have always assumed the ocean was unending and you couldn't take everything from the ocean because there was so much of it and that's not true. We need to get that number up to 10, 15, 20 percent at some point in time in order to have and then we'll have more fish--we could potentially have a lot more being taken out in total stocks. Total lobster catch, total conch catch, and fin-fish catch could be much greater than it is now if we had more of it in full reserve with those big fish pumping out babies--that's what we need."
Success stories like the Hol Chan Marine Reserve show MPAs work. But replenishment takes time-years in fact-which means the fishers need to find income alternatives.
Part two of that story will air next week.
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