When enough is enough?  Drama in the PHMR! 

Most of you who get this or who regularly check out the blogs will know that this is not the first time we have encountered challenges in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve (PHMR).  This past weekend, when everyone was getting ready for TIDE's Freshwater Cup Championship Game (see details and team standings of FWC games at www.tidebelize.org), there were the usual culprits who took advantage of this event as an opportunity to get away with misconduct.  Fortunately, we have very concerned community members who telephone the rangers and gave them a heads-up about these pending activities.  The phone rang, and the voice on the other end said, "Look out, a few of our villagers will be making the move when they think you all are at the game."

 Taking the tip seriously our rangers readied themselves to patrol the waters; no football game for them this weekend.  You see they sensed that some of the usual suspects would be out to once again challenge the system.  While the Freshwater Cup Tournament, the town’s latest and most exciting sporting event was taking place to decide a new Freshwater Cup Champion, a different game was being played in the salt waters of the PHMR.

 Our rangers began patrolling the northern boundaries of the reserve not hoping to find anything out of the ordinary.  Alas! not long afterwards, they came face to face with Richard, a local from Monkey River, red handed in the act of setting his net right in the middle of reserve.  They proceeded to pull his nets out of the water but if you know Richard, then you’ll know that he’s tall and strapping man and could outmaneuver any of our on-duty rangers.  It was a dangerous tactic. 

The two rangers averaged less than twenty years of age between them, while Richard is a grown, seasoned fisherman.  He fought them off with little resistance because of course; they are trained not to get confrontational, especially since none carry arms.   The rangers retreated and Richard took off with his gill nets.  Continuing with their assigned duties, the rangers resumed their patrol and again ran into some more gill nets.  However this time, the owner was not present so the rangers pulled the nets out of the water. 

 By that time Richard had returned to the village and tittle-tattled to the village folk about how he fought off TIDE’s rangers and got his nets back.  Daniel, on the other hand who by the way happened to be the other culprit of the unguarded nets decided to come and re-claim his own.  His justification was that if Richard was able to get his nets back, then he should be able to do the same. 

 Right now, both Richard and Daniel have received education about the illegal use of gill nets in the reserve.  They were also educated about the damage gill nets cause to our fisheries.  Nowadays many people in Monkey River have given up the use of gill nets and as a result, the fisheries are now more abundant which makes it ever more tempting to resort to the use of gill nets.  But many of the villagers are now saying that if they are to live by the rules, then every member of the village must do the same as well.  This is exactly the reason why that they inform us of illegal activities taking place in the reserve. 

 I want to point out here, that this is not the first time that Daniel, who is also the chairman of a newly formed fishing cooperative in his village, has been involved in this kind of illegal activity.  For some reason he feels that he is above the law and can get away with these crimes. 

Daniel is definitely old-school fisherman; he grew up using nets all his life.  But we have reached out to him and his family by offering opportunities to learn alternative methods of sustainable activities. He has even participated in tour guide courses.  I must say that Daniel and his family are doing well.  One of his sons was a ranger for TIDE, and two others are very successful fly fishermen.  So when he says that we are not treating him fairly, I would like the facts to be examined closely.

 I say this because when things like this happen, Daniel conniving as he is, spearheads his malicious campaign to not only discredit TIDE at the donor level, but also at various levels of the community.  We at TIDE believe that the facts speak for themselves and that actions speak louder than words.  We want to thank all those who help us to protect our precious natural resources.  We have to continue to reach out, create opportunities and work with our people so they can all understand why we are doing what we do. 

We cannot simply impose rules and regulations and take away someone's livelihood without providing alternative solutions.  We will continue to do this and continue to educate and work with people like Daniel and Richard.  We believe that in order for conservation efforts to work, we must continue to work with the people who are most affected by conservation. That's our vision and our mission.  Thanks again for everyone's continued support.  

Wil MaheiaExecutive

DirectorThe

Rising Tide

Phone: (501) 722-2431

www.tidebelize.org