Fisheries Captain, Dwayne Garcia is B.T.B.’s Frontline Hero
The Belize Tourism Board’s Frontline Hero recipient for 2023 is Dwayne Garcia, a boat captain at the Conservation Compliance Unit at the Belize Fisheries Department. Originally from Placencia, Garcia’s career started out as a young boy who went fishing with his father. The forty-nine-year-old left the village as a youth with a dream to work for the Fisheries Department. His tender age prevented him from landing a job at sea from the onset, and initially, he could only earn a stipend until he turned eighteen. But he persevered and climbed the ladder from the post of messenger to boat captain today. News Five’s Marion Ali highlights the outstanding achievement of this veteran seaman in the following report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Thirty years of perseverance and dedication have paid off for forty-nine-year-old Dwayne Garcia, a veteran boat captain with the Belize Fisheries Department. His work at the department’s Conservation Compliance Unit has not gone unnoticed. This week, the Belize Tourism Board named Garcia their Frontline Hero.
Garcia shared how it all began for him.
Dwayne Garcia
Dwayne Garcia, Winner, B.T.B.’s Frontline Hero Award
“I mi done know how to drive boat and everything, but I never come fi gone into the unit. I mean I come as an office assistant and one day I ask them to mek I just dock up the boat. So when I dock up the boat, my boss look at me and he say, “It’s a captain or driver like you we need for the boat”, noh? And right away he just move me from the office assistant to assistant captain.”
After ten years in the assistant captain’s seat, Garcia was destined for even greater things. He was promoted to the title of boat captain. He lets us in on what a day at sea is like in that position.
Dwayne Garcia
“We would make sure we have our kit with the scale, the caliper, and the Smart stream, noh, to download the fishing license and boat license and stuff. So normally, we would take all of that with us and first, normally we would approach the vessel and ask them for their fishing license and boat license, also their port license and their license for their vessel. We would go on board and ask them and check their products, make sure it’s a legal size – conch and lobster, and also the fish fillet. It also has to have a skin patch on it to verify the fish, you know, because certain species are protected and they shouldn’t have certain species in their possession, noh. And also we would ask for their log books because that gives us the data that they catch every day.”
Garcia explained that a lot of what he does was inherited from his father, under whose tutelage he mastered his skills in seamanship – a lesson for many to take note of.
Dwayne Garcia
“From I was a little boy growing up, I’ve been in and out with my dad on the ocean in the summertime while I was going to school. This is how come I get to love this kind of job, you know. I love the ocean and love the job that I do right now as a fisheries officer. I’ve been here from since 1991. When I first started, the job I was a – back in the days they used to say messenger – now they call it office assistant. In those days I used to be a messenger, but I didn’t know anything about Belize, because when I first came from Placencia it was lone bush, so I didn’t know up-stop, down-stop, no street in Belize.”
Garcia was able to tap into training in law enforcement, safety, and environmental areas and is a certified PADI Open Water Diver, a Rescue Diver, and Advanced Open Water Diver. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, his skills were put to the test when he was faced with rescuing eighteen fishermen from pirates in rough sea conditions. As part of his prize, Garcia collects fifteen hundred dollars from the Belize Tourism Board along with a two-night stay for two at Sirenian Bay Resort & Villas. Marion Ali for News Five.
