For the past 10 days, or so the Sarstoon Island has been dominating the headlines. And, it continued tonight. But, truth is this little scratch of territory has been making news from 2007. That's when we first visited - at the time the issue was also Guatemala - but it wasn't about the Navy more about the fishermen. But, what strikes us as we look at it now is how relaxed the river mouth was at that time - there was no confrontation, no ramming, just pretty much easy going. We were accompanying SATIIM and the then Minister of Fisheries Vildo Marin - and here's how our trip went:.

Posted (January 19, 2007)

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This is called Sarstun Island - a small cluster of land at the middle of the mouth of the Sarstun River - and it's what fisheries personnel use to mark the boundary between Belize and Guatemala. 200 yards to the to the south, is Barra Sarstun a small Guatemalan fishing village. Made up mostly of thatch houses, it is where Guatemalan territory begins - and the village is most known for the small military base that the Guatemalan Armed Forces maintains there.

Yesterday Fisheries Minister Vildo Marin visited the area for the first time. Marin traveled bare footed in a SATIIM boat along with a senior Guatemalan fisheries official. He is Oswaldo Morales, the Executive Director of Fisheries for the Peten region. Leading the tour was SATIIM's Executive Director Greg Choq and field ranger Egbert Valencio.

The team is here to get a sense of the complex fisher folk issues that prevail in this area - known as the Amatique Bay, specifically the Sarstun region. Complex because aretesenal fishing communities on both sides realize that fish stocks are being rapidly depleted. And while they have different flags - they share the same fisheries resource.

And that resource is being diminished largely because of vessels like this. It's a shrimp trawler - we encountered it yesterday afternoon working here on the Guatemalan side, just outside of Belizean waters. We had to keep our distance to stay within those Belizean waters. And that's what we saw in the day, SATIIM's rangers says they have visited at night and found 60 trawlers - that's 6-0 all working in this same area - on the Belizean side as well. It's a huge problem for communities on both sides, and Morales and Marin say it's something that must be addressed.

Hon. Vildo Marin, Minister of Fisheries
"These people, the community people here in Sarstoon, they have a petition to the government to regulate more this kind of fishing."

Jules Vasquez,
Are you alarmed at the reports of industrial trawlers operating in this area as described by the SATIIM park rangers, 60 of them, does that alarm you?

Hon. Vildo Marin, Minister of Fisheries
"Yes it does."

Jules Vasquez,
Is there anything we can do about it?

Hon. Vildo Marin,
"Well hopefully we can continue the conversation. Definitely these trawlers are destroying the sea bed and further damaging the resources. Certainly we have to do something about it."

But what is that something? That's what fisher folk and policymakers from both Guatemala and Belize gathered at the Parish Hall in Punta Gorda to discuss yesterday. It's the first ever Bi-national Fisheries Forum and while the languages may have been different, the concerns were the same.

Greg Choq - Executive Director - SATIIM
"The fishermen and other resource users of the region have recognized the bleak future that lies ahead should the current trend of resource extraction be maintained. It is clear that if we do not take active and aggressive measures to safeguard our marine resources, the livelihood of many of our communities will collapse. The problems are complex and require a range of different actions to be changed."

Alvin Laredo, President SATIIM & Barranco Resident
"Fish, including snook, snapper, bonefish, shrimps etc. are all observed to be in a decline. 67% of the fishermen said that the fish were smaller. 70% of the fishermen say there were fewer fishes."

Fisherman from Barra Sarstun #1,
"The puzzle here is where are the fishes or are we finishing with them. This has really increased the poverty line within the coastline of these communities."

Fisherman from Barra Sarstun #2,
"The reason why we don't want no fishing is because the area for fishing is too small and when these big ships come in, there is no lobster, no money, and so since the space is limited, it is not possible for us with small boats to continue."

Hortencia Reyes - Fisherman from Livingston
"You can't tell the fishermen you cannot do no fishing. What option does he have otherwise?

Angelica Mendez, Fisher Folk from Livingston
"We are aware that the resources we have is depleting and we know and we have some questions. We are not certain if the fishes are coming less and less because of pollution, tourism, or climactic change. Life of fishermen is difficult, hard, and the fish stock is becoming less and less. We don't have an option. I don't know what will follow."

And that fear of a future where the only certainty seems to be that stocks will decline, has created a sense of urgency on both sides of the Sarstoon. But because it is a border area, the issues are complex. This fisherman for example is from Barra Sarstun; he is a Guatemalan and as you can see his boat is loaded with nets; most likely those nets will end up being cast in Belizean waters.
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Greg Choq,
"Definitely the biggest problem is over fishing and Guatemalan fishermen encroaching on Belizean waters, extracting resources that creates a problem for the Belizean fishermen because we find that the Guatemalan fisher folks are more aggressive and assertive and so they dominate the area, pushing out the traditional Belizean fishermen. That's a big political problem but it is also I think, with enforcement, we can mitigate that."

Hon. Vildo Marin,
"Certainly we have to put more monies into enforcement, that's definite. We are trying our very best from our own resources, put more money into the Fisheries Department to do just that."

Erik Villagran, SATIIM Ranger
"In terms of vigilance and control, we know that we have a lot more work to do but as you know we, many a times, don't have the resources, the human resources, to be able to do all the monitoring."

Jules Vasquez,
Will you be able to put someone here to enforce so that fishing stocks are not depleted?

Oswaldo Morales, SATIIM Ranger
"That is the proposal. We are trying to do something like that. I don't know now because we are making the field visits and we try to do something."

They will try - that's the best decision makers on both sides could say. But residents want more - because everyday, they catch less.

Of course, while things were cool on that trip, within months the Guatemalan Navy would end up stopping the SATIIM Rangers in that same river - mouth…but that, as they say, is another story for another time..