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They took the media out to the location all day yesterday, and today, Daniel Ortiz takes a closer look at the significance of this proposed housing area in a location set aside to become a protected area.

Daniel Ortiz reporting
To get to this particular location, it took the press about an hour or so by boat. Our guides said that the Sunset Cove area is accessible by a road under construction. That's until the very end, when the new would-be residents would then need to traverse a lagoon to get to their own piece of it.

Otherwise, the residents will have to travel here by boat. Looking at it, this area seems more suited for fishing expeditions than a housing project, and a commercial fly fisher living on the island agreed with us:

Omar Arceo - Flying Fishing Guide
"This here is a small boney fish lagoon where I am standing now. I came in the morning and try to hook a couple bone fish and is also a natural habitat for the bone fish, maybe juvenile tarpon and we have a couple barracudas, snappers and crana."

Mike Rudon, ch5
"I understand that they are planning a subdivision in this area. We already have the survey post down. How will that affect your industry?"

Omar Arceo - Flying Fishing Guide
"It will affect it 100% because it's going to kill the natural habitat of the fishes that lives here especially the bone fish that we are looking for and all the juvenile fishes that are making their life here because this is a incubator, a marine mangrove surrounded. It is a small incubator for juvenile fishes."

Still, the pegs have been driven, it's been surveyed, and more importantly, mangroves have been cut to gain access to this area. Damage is being done to this habitat, and more will have to come if it becomes a housing area:

Jose "Elito" Arceo - Former President, ACCSD
"About two and a half to three years Hol Chan itself, Hol Chan is a national park been looking to go through an expansion phase and part of those areas were going to be the expansion of Hol Chan and from what I gathered from the media in the past couple days that the grant that PACT gave Hol Chan was actually cancelled. So we are inquiring about it and that's when we found out that there are surveying pegs in the lagoon."

The argument can be made that it's only surveying, no land has been distributed there as yet. But the conservationists are on an offensive to pre-empt any such move.

Mike Rudon, ch5
"As a fly fisherman, give me your reaction to something like this to looking around and seeing all these survey pegs down."

Omar Arceo - Flying Fishing Guide
"It's very sad to see these pegs because we are going into zero. We are not going to see this anymore natural habitat of the boney fish because people will come and live here and they will destroy the environment, so that's why it is very important for us to conserve this small lagoon where we can come and fish for bone fish and other fishes."

Reporter
"Someone in mainland Belize will say that it's just another subdivision."

Omar Arceo - Flying Fishing Guide
"They could say that's it another subdivision, but it's not a subdivision because it's a natural habitat. We called it in Spanish "Bajos" where the juvenile fish grows here and they will grow to a certain age and come out to the deeper lagoon, so it's not just another subdivision. It's very important to conserve this area and keep it for our youths to come."

Jose "Elito" Arceo - Former President, ACCSD
"When you tell people land, they think land is land, no, you are talking about a couple feet deep of water. So the people need land. Give them the land, it's a big island and more of it is up north. Why don't you plan it and give them the land. Make sure you have all the infrastructure, it's a big demand on the island and the place is growing tremendously, but we need to plan accordingly so that we can grow."

One of the Government authorities, who we were able to get a comment from, refused to touch this topic no matter how hard we pushed. Mayor Daniel Guerrero told us that he's not been briefed on the plans for Sunset Cove, and cannot make an informed statement.

Mike Rudon, ch5
"In terms of any subdivision, I am not going general with that, who handles it on the island? Is it something that government can do without the council taking part or the council can do without government taking part or does it has to be a joint effort?"

Daniel "Danny" Guerrero - Mayor, San Pedro Town Council
"It's a tricky question. No comments on that."

Daniel Ortiz
"The situation is that persons have commented on it and we want to give you as a government agency a fair chance."

Daniel "Danny" Guerrero - Mayor, San Pedro Town Council
"When the thing develops more you can come to me. I have no problem giving interviews, but before it happens I can't comment. If there is nothing for me there I can't comment, but if you hear something later on and I hear something I don't have any problem commenting. I don't like to hide things, but I don't want to comment on something I don't know about. All I can say that the island is growing, everybody is welcome, come and spend the 21st right here and join the parade."

Today, we tried contacting Miguel Alamilla, one of the marine biologists who manages the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, and he told us that he has no idea why Zone F was not approved by the Government of Belize to become a reserve. He told us that he is not able to make a comment on whether or not a housing project is being planned for part of the lagoon which is supposed to be under protection right now. The reason, he told us, is that he needs verification if indeed this area is part of Zone F.

Today, we tried to get a comment from Beverly Wade, the Fisheries Administrator. We understand that she gave comments to another media house, but when we engaged her, she told us that Cabinet would be sending out a release, which, like all Cabinet releases, is like a ship on a distant horizon, never coming to shore.