The South Water Caye Marine Reserve is one of the biggest in the country. 15 miles southeast of Dangriga Town, it is also a spawning ground and habitat for many of the marine life that make Dangriga's waters some of the most abundant in the country. And that's why the Stann Creek Fisherman Association is publicly complaining about a dredging operation that's happening within the Tobacco Caye Range. It's a private residential project spearheaded by locals but the president of the association told us it is contaminating their sea:..
Mark McKenzie, Chairman - Stann Creek Fisherman Association
"When you dredge in that area, the currents in that area - right now there is not even any supervision as we took out the reporter yesterday. Imagine somebody sitting on the street side in your neighborhood where dust blowing in your face every - that's what the dredge is pretty much doing to all marine creatures in that area; the manatees, the habit areas as far as marine life. Imagine dust and mud coming on your head top, either you will die or you will move right. Yes we can say that after a certain time everything will settle down, but you will kill what's already there. The SI was signed by government since 1996; nobody can't say that they didn't know this is a marine reserve. I don't care if the developer is local or a foreigner, the issue is that you basically is dredging in a reserve. You have manage to circumvent the processes and regulations that are in place to 
protect this and when you are basically telling is to respect that we need to have some protective areas to keep the harvesting or the fishing industry sustainable for future generations. We have been coming onboard to respecting that, now you are going to slap us in the face and basically close your eyes to somebody commercial dredging in that area and to actually now going to over a two acres space in size? That's ridiculous man."
Reporter
"You guys went out there yesterday. Tell us how that went?"
Mark McKenzie, Chairman - Stann Creek Fisherman Association
"We were confronted by the developer and he expressed that of course I would say concern that, I might be picking a bone with this on behalf of the association. Nevertheless this is business and specifically under no circumstances anybody should have a dredging permit to dredge in a marine protect area. That's total BS!"
Mckenzie says that no community consultations were held before the dredging as required by the environmental compliance plan. No one from the fisheries department would comment and the minister referred us to her CEO who did not return our calls.
We did get to speak with the developer, Kareem Castillo from Eagle Development who told us that Mckenzie has an agenda. He has a land dispute with them on that same island based on a squatters claim which was thrown out of court in 2010.
Second, he says that they are building one residence and a house for a caretaker and have followed very procedure and requirement. He adds that they have installed a curtain to contain the silt run-off and he is confident that it works.
He says they are not damaging the marine environment and will finish dredging in two days. They started two weeks ago, and he claims they have dredged less than the permitted five thousand cubic yards.
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