Matura Shepherd says GOB vague about Jamaican fishermen

There is also controversy over the PG Fishing Company, which has a joint venture with the Rio Grande Cooperative of Punta Gorda. Also of Jamaican origin, its boats arrived over the weekend intending to conduct fishing operations in southern Belize. The Fisheries and Environment Departments say that PG Fishing does not yet have a license and the community held a meeting on Wednesday opposing the venture. Matura-Shepherd says that G.O.B. has been vague but at least for now, operations have been suspended.

Audrey Matura Sheppard, Vice-President, Oceana Belize
“There was a representative from government but that wasn’t from the ministerial level, it was a representative from the Ministry of Fisheries and there is so little they can give in terms of commitment. So in a nutshell we would say that what they said is fairly vague as to what the position of the government is, but the positive side is that they are not saying move forward and just do whatever you want. There seems to be a suspension on at least the Punta Gorda fishing agreement as we understand it.”

Jose Sanchez
“The argument can be brought up that the Caribbean Single Market Economy is one reason why they should be allowed. What’s your viewpoint on that?”

Audrey Matura Shepherd
“When we joined CSME, it isn’t saying that we are opening Belize wantonly to anybody and everything; it still has to be within a framework. So while, our position is not that there cannot be any kind of agreement between Rio Grande and a Jamaican company, it has to be one that does comply with our local legislation and our local legislation really puts the purview of giving licenses into the hands of government and government is saying that we haven’t given licenses to any Jamaican vessels to be operating in our waters. Also we need to look at the fact that one way government can address foreign vessels wanting to come and fish in our waters is to be clear as to which areas are our protected areas. You can declare other areas as protected areas simply because we don’t want them to come and just reap everything that Belizeans have worked so hard to preserve and the only reason we still have some amount of fishes in our waters is because of the amount of sacrifices our Belizeans, especially our fishermen, have made.”

Jose Sanchez
“What all type of fishing? Does it include trawlers or just nets?”

Audrey Matura Shepherd
“We’re not clear but we’re hoping it doesn’t include trawling because right now we only have two trawlers in the country and they are very limited as to the areas they can trawl but we don’t have the level of enforcement that we need. When you give access to anybody—locals or foreigners—to your waters, you need to have the ability to enforce.”