Placencia Village hosts annual Lobster Fest
Tropical Storm Alex swept across parts of Belize last Saturday. Organizers were called off many activities in anticipation of tropical storm Alex, but in Placencia, the annual lobster fest was staged as planned. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was in the peninsula and found out that despite the celebration of one of our main seafood exports, there has been a decline in its production.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
The start of the annual lobster season, like many before it, promised a celebration of seafood, great music, and handicraft but as fate would have it this year’s Lobster Fest was marred by heavy rains and severe winds. While San Pedro and Caye Caulker postponed activities for the weekend the Placencia branch of the Belize Tourism Industry Association forged ahead with activities to kick off the season. Despite the underwhelming attendance organizers say they had already invested too much into the event to call it off.
Alicia Dial, Director, Placencia Tourism Center
alicia dial
“We looked at the weather and I know there are a lot of people in the community that have sunk a lot of money into—I don’t wanna say sunk—invested a lot of money into this festival for their food booths and whatnot and Lobster Fest is something that helps a lot of people get through the Maaga Season. And so while maybe today they’re not getting the crowd that they’re use to they’re also having the opportunity to at least recover what they’ve spent, you know, unless NEMO would tell us you can’t have it, who are we to say we’re gonna postpone or cancel? I mean a lot of people don’t have anywhere to store their food or the things that they’ve bought so we decided you know what if we do it we’re the leaders so at least we’ll show that we’re gonna try and we’re really happy and pleased that a lot of our vendors came out and we’ve been out here since ten this morning and if you watch, every hour a few more people, more people are coming out.”
Despite minimal turnout due to inclement weather the chairman of the Placencia Fishermen’s Cooperative says the local fisheries industry is facing a more serious problem. Over the years there has been a growing scarcity of lobster because of an overexploitation of marine resources.
Carlton Young
Carlton Young, Chairman, Placencia Fishermen’s Cooperative
“Every year like for the past ten years we’ve had like a decline in the lobster production. That is due to, I think, over fishing and just a general decline in the product itself. The fishermen usually take part in the fishing tournament but due to the weather today we won’t have any fishing tournament.”
Isani Cayetano
“What has the local community done in terms of addressing the issue of scarcity in lobster?”
Carlton Young
“Well we try to diversify into other industries. We recently got a grant to do a seaweed farming project through COMPACT and most of our fishermen have diversified into tourism to kinda ease off the pressure on the reef and the lobster fishing.”
Isani Cayetano
“How do you balance the scarcity of lobster as a result of over fishing and the fact that many people travel from far to come here to this location to celebrate lobster?”
Carlton Young
“Yeah well I think the government has to do its part by probably limiting fishermen because right now there’s no limit, you could just go in and get a license. I think they have to limit it and just use the traditional fishermen to produce.”
The shortage of crayfish has inevitably hiked up the prices of the delicacy to as much as thirty dollars per plate. Others instead chose to be creative while keeping prices as affordable as possible.
Bill Harding, Vendor, Lobster Fest
“They’re basically tortilla with a little, garlic, onion, cilantro and we got a little dipping sauce to go with it. They’re five dollars each, nice little treat.”
Isani Cayetano
“Is it an original recipe of yours or is it something that you’ve adopted and trying to put on the market out here this weekend?”
Bill Harding
“It was from another recipe and I put a little lobster in it and we think it came out pretty good.”
Isani Cayetano
“How does it go over with the buying public who stopped by you your booth?”
Bill Harding
“We’ve had extraordinary response and we made some last week and we took them around to some of the people around town and we got overwhelming response so we thought we’d give it a try.”
Along the main street of the peninsula residents and tourists shuffled in the rain while the beachfront was noticeably empty. The weather on Sunday was considerably better across the country and vendors predicted a better turnout on the final day of the festivity. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
In Caye Caulker the annual festival was postponed to a later date.
Thanks for coming down to the festival. Placencia Lobsterfest is a joint effort of the Placencia Village Council and the Placencia BTIA. It is an event that brings out young and old, local and visitor and mingles them like nothing else in Placencia. Sunday did turn out to be absolutely wonderful – beautiful weather, happy festival goers – the perfect way to celebrate Lobsterfest.
I ENJOYED LobsterFest!!! See ya next year
I think that the event organizers made the wrong choice. How responsible do you look as an organization when the rest of the country is battering a storm and you are holding a “festival”. It is in times like this when we should show unity. If your neigbour is in trouble you stand by them. The Organizers seem to care of the bottom line, that they would not loose money but why hold a festival when you know you will have poor attendance. It certainly does leave a sour taste in my mouth. I applaud Caye Caulker and San Pedro for re-scheduling…hopefully the Placencia organizers can learn from this and be responsible neighbours. I am happy that Belize did not suffer damage from the storm, we were lucky but again this is when we are “suppose to show unity” and i think this was not the case in Placencia.
Hi Oscar,
I am the Placencia Village Chairman. If Channel 5 had made any mention of the interview they did with me, it would have been very clear why we continued with our Annual Lobsterfest. I personally have been in direct contact with Mr. Keith Emmanuel who is the Southern Regional Coordinator for NEMO. He have been informing me every 2 hours of the situation of the storm and how it was affecting the Southern Part of Belize as well as the rest of the country.
I personally made it very clear to him that once they (NEMO) give the word that we have to cancel we would have done so in a heart beat. It is the Placencia Village Council and the Placencia BTIA Chapter’s responsibility to not make any hasty and premature decisions in such matters; we have to take into consideration all the money and time that have been invested by vendors to get their products to Placencia; money invested by tourists, local and foreign, who traveled to Placencia for the Lobsterfest and everyone else who had money and time tied up in the Placencia Lobsterfest weekend.
It is easy to look at a situation from outside and make an opine and formulate a decision; it is, however, a very different scene on the inside when people’s livelihood and very lives depends on your decisions, especially in our current economic financial situation.
Sincerely,
Charles Leslie Jr.
Chairperson
Placencia Village
Also, I want to make a correction for Channel 5: The Chairman for Placencia Fishermen’s Cooperative is Mr. Sydney Lopez Jr., (show in picture) not Mr. Carlton Young.
Also, we will be setting a date shortly as to when we will conclude the Fishing Tournament that was suppose to take place over the Placencia Lobsterfest Weekend.
NEMO called and advised us to cancel the Fishing Tournament and we did so without hesitation.
Thank you for the information.
Please be informed that the Caye Caulker Annual Lobster Fest has indeed been re-scheduled to July 10-11, 2010. It promises to be a fun-filled two days for the entire family. Ms. Stephanie Arce, however, was selected as Miss Lobster Fest 2010-2011 on Friday, June 25, 2010.
Cheers!
To the chairperson of the Placencia Village Council:
Thank you for your clarifications but my point is that when facing a storm that can potentially harm our entire coast line one must be united and take the precautions to ensure the safety of an entire town/village in your case rather than a “festival”. I live in San Pedro and had a booth rented for the weekend events so i am on the inside not on the outside as you assume. San Pedro and Caye Caukler invested the same as Placencia did but they thought it best not to have more people concentrated on the coastline with a storm that is so unpredictable. On thursday the center of the storm was suppose to pass close to cozumel, by friday it was closer to our belize border, by saturday 9am it was suppose to pass over the island of ambergris caye and by 3pm saturday it was now passing below belize city. Even the professionals at the Belize Met Service could not keep up with the storm cause that’s the nature of storms they are unpredictable..so the responsible thing to do is to keep as few people as you can on the coastline. I hope this puts my point across…
I wish Caye Caulker a smashing success for their Lobsterfest!!! I might try to make it out there myself.
INTERESTING, WHAT HAPPENS IN PLACENCIA BELIZE AND WHOM IS IN CHARGE OF THE DECISIONS MADE FOR THAT AREA OF THE COUNTRY. IT APPEARS THAT PLACENCIA OPERATES AS A SEPERATE COUNTRY INSIDE OF BELIZE. US CITIZENS HAVE BEEN ADVISED TO NOT GO TO PLACENCIA FOR THIS VERY REASON.
You are missing out! Placencia is one the best places to be in Belize! However we’re operating, it seems to be working out pretty damn well.
Alvira Clark, you have to come visit. Tell your advisors to come along with you! Your first drink is on me!