Fishermen at atolls receive radios and G.P.S.

At least thirty fishermen took time out this week to learn how to use equipment like the marine radio and global positioning system, G.P.S. The reason is that these devices will help in the co-management of the remote areas where they fish, namely Lighthouse and Glover’s Reefs.

Alan Burn, Member, National Fishermen Cooperative
“It’s important for them to use radios because it keeps them in touch with one another. And also the main management headquarters of those two atolls have radios, so they can talk back to their headquarters. And what they really want to do is to report any incidents of illegal fishing and they are also going to be trained to do studies on abundance of marine life, so that is one of the objectives. That is the main reason why they?ll be trained in the G.P.S. technology, so that they can go back and check a certain spot to see whether the marine life is increasing or decreasing in a given area.”

Each fisherman who took part in the training session will be issued a marine radio and G.P.S. The workshop was sponsored by U.N.D.P.’s Community Management of Protected Areas Conservation Programme, United Nations Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme, National Fishermen Cooperative Association, Belize Audubon Society and Wildlife Conservation Society in association with the Belize Fisheries Department.