SEA Busts Illegal Conch, Lobster and Boney Fish as Sea

The Southern Environmental Association, SEA, has been ramping up its presence within two marine locations that it co-manages, resulting in a number of fisheries busts over the past few weeks.  On Thursday, rangers on patrol in the waters off the coast of Seine Bight Village confiscated three gillnets that were illegally placed in an area where boney fish were present.  Just two days prior, another bust was made within the Gladden Spit and Laughing Bird Caye locations, where sixty-seven undersized conch were discovered.  This afternoon, News Five spoke with Arreini Palacio-Morgan, SEA’s executive director, who told us about the increased enforcement efforts being undertaken by the organization.

Arreini Palacio Morgan

Arreini Palacio Morgan, Executive Director, SEA

“The Southern Environmental Association, along with the Belize Coast Guard, has been involved in a number of enforcement activities in an around the two protected areas that we co-manage: Gladden Spit Cayes Marine Reserve and Laughing Bird Caye National Park.  The first one was in late September just before the conch season when our rangers came upon a pen with conch in it, twenty-seven conchs in total and that pen was destroyed and the conch were distributed in the park.  That same day they came across a fisherman on the island and an arrest was made for undersized lobsters.  Subsequent to that, on another patrol over the past two weeks, our rangers came across two fishermen with forty-six undersized conch and more recently, two days ago, another bust was made with sixty-seven undersized conch.  Last night, Thursday, our rangers confiscated three gill nets off the coast of the Placencia peninsula near to Seine Bight that were illegally placed and had illegal product in it.  Those would be boney fish, so several activities that netted quite a bit of good results for SEA over the past month.”