Right now, the Fisheries Department is finishing up their paperwork to march 29 fishermen in front of the Magistrate's Court for breaking the fisheries laws. They are being accused of fishing over 3,300 undersized conch.
They were caught in a raid last Friday that the Fisheries Department conducted in Southern waters with the help of the Belize Audubon Society and the Police Department. The joint patrol came upon the undersized conchs and 493 fish fillets without skin patches. The skin patch laws were put in place for the fisheries catch to be easily identified so that the officials can ensure that the fish species being targeted are not the important grazing kind which keeps the Barrier reef clean.
Well, the joint patrol brought in all those illegal fisheries products, and a total of 29 men were detained pending charges for fisheries offences. It's a successful operation for the Fisheries Department which is hoping to bring close to at least $66,000 in fines against all the defendants. Today, the Supervisor of the Department's Conservation and Compliance Unit, Hampton Gamboa, granted us an interview discussing the intelligence gathering which led to the raid from last week:
Hampton Gamboa - Conservation & Compliance Unit Supervisor - Fisheries Department
"On Friday the 24th of March, joint operations started for 3 days with the Belize Audubon Society, the Fisheries Department, and Police Department Strike Team North out at Lighthouse Reef. Upon arriving at Lighthouse Reef, we've been getting some reports that there are a number of fishers who are harvesting undersize conchs. What we decided to do over that 3 days' operation was to sweep the entire atoll, check all vessels to ensure that they are complying with the laws and upon us executing that operation, at the end of the operation there were 29 fishers who were arrested for possession of undersized conch - they were just removed from the shell, had all the guts well intact. In addition to that there were 3 fishers who were charged for the possession of fish fillet without skin patch. All 29 individuals we believe will by the end of this week, be charged in the magistrate court here in Belize City."
"Valuable information was relayed to us by fishers themselves as well as people who were concerned citizens, who observed people selling undersized products. Therefore, as a result of that, that's what we ended up with right now."
"Information from different stake holders in the community as well as fishers who called in and gave us some of the information. We have also in addition stepped up our operation. We've been doing a number of joint operation with February with Interpol, MIT and this month we are looking at joint operation with Belize Audubon Society and the police department, the coast guard. We are planning to do some more strategic joint operations throughout the year."
And some of those 29 defendants are already going before the Magistrate's Court for the undersized conch. These are 9 fishermen from villages in the Corozal District. The Fisheries Department say that these 9 are responsible for 1,162 undersized conch, more than 1/3 the total bust.
They are 24 year-old Eder Patt, 21 year-old Nagail Baptist, 40 year-old Fidel Roberto Chulun, 62 year-old Hipolito Goroscia, Hilaro Teck, 24 year-old Melvin Marquez, 35 year-old Roberto De La Cruz, 18 year-old Alvaro De La Cruz, and Jose Monzon. Each of men were charged with being in possession of undersized conch, and in several instances some were charged with multiple counts.
They all pleaded guilty to the charges, and they were sentenced to pay fines to a total of just over $30,000. They were all able to pay down payments to those fines, and they are home tonight with their families. They now have huge court fines that they must now pay, or else they will face jail time in default.
Gamboa tells us that there are about 4 repeat offenders among those 29 fishermen caught last week Friday.
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