Another manatee killed in city waters
Yesterday, in the wake of the discovery of a dead manatee north of Belize City, officials issued a warning to boaters to drive carefully along the coast. Apparently that warning came too late, as just before we went on the air last night another manatee corpse was washing up near the Princess Hotel. Today, that animal’s carcass was brought to the headquarters of the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute for a post-mortem. Researcher Angeline Valentine gave us the details.
Angeline Valentine, Manatee Researcher, C.Z.M.A.I.
“The location of the initial report of this finding, as I said before, was by the Calypso by the Barracks. And this is in close proximity with the area that is heavily trafficked by boats for different purposes, tourism being one of them. The area is very close to Swallow Caye, which is a famous tourist destination for manatee watching. And it is for this reason that we always ask that tour guides and tour guide operators are very careful in this general vicinity, because this area, the coast of Belize, is one that is known to be highly trafficked by manatees also. And so we also ask that boat traffic be very careful in the area, just because we know that manatees are always out here, they frequent this area.”
Stewart Krohn
“Angeline, manatees are your business, this is what you do for a living, but the rest of us really don’t. Why should the people out there care whether or not a boat runs over a manatee?”
Angeline Valentine
“People should care. Aside from being a part of Belizean folklore, especially in some coastal communities down in the P.G. area in the lagoon, these people know about manatees. Looking about it from an economic aspect, a lot of money is made through tourist and a great percentage of that revenue is also brought in by manatee watching. It’s like a check and balance kind of thing. We go for sustainable development, where we’re not saying that the resources should not be utilized, but they should be utilised in a sustainable way. If the manatees are not around, then those revenues cannot be sought from this business.”
Stewart Krohn
“Compared to the rest of the Caribbean and Central America, how safe is our manatee population, how abundant is it?”
Angeline Valentine
“Belize is known to have basically the highest population of the Antillean subspecies of the West Indian Manatee. And I think in Belize we do offer a great deal of protection for our manatees. At present, we have three wildlife sanctuaries that have been declared, primarily for the protection of manatees. The last one being Swallow Caye, that was recently declared last year. So I would say, looking at other countries, in comparison to other countries like Guatemala, that Belize has come a long way and is doing a lot where manatees are concerned.”
Stewart Krohn
“So what’s your message to people who operated boats along the coast?”
Angeline Valentine
“My message remains that same, just be careful and lookout for manatees.”
If you see a manatee that appears to be in trouble, please call the hotline at 0-800-manatee. Again, boaters, particularly those servicing the cruise ships, are urged to slow down and look out.
