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Alex Munoz - Vice President, OCEANA South America & Caribbean
"OCEANA is totally committed in staying in Belize and starting a new phase that will bring us new victories for the oceans. We always very closely with local communities, local people living in each one of the countries that we are in. We always look for national people that integrate our offices, especially the leader and this was not an exception in Belize - we're looking for a Belizean citizen to lead our office. We've received a number of very interesting applications, I would say over 30 really interesting applications - it's a very competitive process. We want to make a decision as soon as possible but it will be a difficult choice because we're very impressed with the quality of the candidates. What's important is that it's somebody that has a story here, that knows the people, that is accepted by the people and that is not considered a foreign. Audrey has her own style and we are grateful for the things that she did and the new leader will have a chance to prove that he or she can do it in the same way or in another way. Of course people are only a part in the history of any organization and when those people leave, we need to find new people that can keep doing the job - that's totally normal. Although we are looking for a strong leader - that leader needs to reflect that we are a big organization and that there's a talented group of people helping to make these results happen."

But things are changing at OCEANA Belize, and because Matura-Shepherd's personality left such a large imprint on the Organization – those changes are sure to ruffle some feathers. First off, none of the OCEANA Office staff were at today's press conference; we are told they weren't invited. Plus the press release about Munoz's visit didn't come from that office. Today, Munoz was pressed to explain the changes at OCEANA:..

Alex Munoz
"I will be the one that leads the Caribbean and the Belize office will report to me so basically we're looking for a leader in the form of the country's director but in no way that means that the new person will have less authority than the former Vice President had. In terms of spending, we expect that person to do the better job in allocating resources to our priorities which is protecting the oceans and specifically to each of our campaigns - fighting offshore drilling and introducing changes to the fisheries legislation."

Daniel Ortiz
"When you say spending, do you think that the spending was not done properly or you're just saying in general?"

Alex Munoz
"I think that the office was conducted in a way that makes sense to an office that is studying and that was fighting a big campaign against offshore drilling. Now we will keep that and we will introduce probably more technical expertise and strengthen our staff and our campaigns."

Reporter
"There's no staff is in the room - it's just you, which is unusual for an OCEANA press conference, the staff are not here - one could easily get the impression that they are no longer a part of this - what do you say to that?"

Alex Munoz
"That's not true, we have met with the staff and we actually had a meeting with Audrey Matura-Shepherd, it was a very friendly meeting - we have been friends for a long time, we shared our chairs in OCEANA's committee for four years. The staff is in the office, they are working rigorously and there's no decision made on the staff - we will respect job security, we will respect all of the labor laws applicable here."

Reporter
"I'm very concerned about the job security about those people."

Alex Munoz
"Audrey had a boss right, an American boss - that's still the case because that person is the CEO - he's also my boss. I will be supervising but I will not be the country's leader, everybody in their Belizean office is in the office working and we will have the new leader to define and decide on the staff he needs - that's a very normal procedure everywhere. They will stay as long as they keep doing the great job that they have done."

Reporter
"All has come to this because Mrs. Audrey Matura-Shepherd made some public comments towards the issue of LGBT - clarify to us what your policy is and what the new leader would expect to adhere to?"

Alex Munoz
"Before addressing that policy - I must say that OCEANA is an organization that welcomes everybody that wants to protect the oceans. We don't have time to lose or we cannot afford to lose support because the oceans needs help from everybody so we don't make any difference in terms of whether of a person's personal preferences. If somebody wants the freedom to joke about everything - that's fine - but the problem is that we will lose some strength in what we want to accomplish our mission. So when we choose our staff or leaders, we want those people to be 100% committed to our mission."

Munoz says they hope to hire a new country manager shortly, and surely before the end of the year.