Gill nets found and confiscated by PLI Rangers

On Wednesday September 13th 2006, Eugenio Ah who is the Manager of the Private Lands (PLI), Carlos Bardalez also known as Coon and Mr. Bol, all three of them, rangers of the PLI, were doing nothing other than conducting their routine patrols and surveillance near the Ganger Point area of the Port Honduras Marine Reserve (PHMR), when the propeller of the sea vessel they in which they were traveling in failed. It got stuck in a gill net.

Ranger Coon and Mr. Bol from Earthwatch inspect gill nets.

It took them very little time to free the boat’s engine from the monstrous net, which was then bundled up in heap of tangled ropes in their boat, allowing them to continue with their always ‘unpredictable outcome’ of tasks ahead. It was not going to be smooth sailing, so to speak, because lo and behold, what they encountered not to far from where they got tied up was even worse.

Upon reaching the demarcation buoy at the beginning of the reserve, the first red and white striped one you would meet after leaving Punta Gorda Town, two more enormous nets were pulled out of the water. For that same week alone, some five gill nets were encountered in the PHMR and so far have been confiscated.

The use of gill nets for fishing in the PHMR is illegal and the Fisheries Department has the authority to prosecute, in a judicial court of law, any individual or group of individuals caught indulging in this illegal activity.

Gill nets are dangerous not only to juvenile fish, but to other endangered marine organisms such as the manatee, the different species of sea turtles, dolphins etc. TIDE has engaged in education campaigns in the communities and school which buffer the PHMR.

In other incidents when the illegal gills net have been found in the reserve involves threats against the rangers. So far none of our rangers have been injured while performing their duties and it is our hope that the worst never occurs. Our rangers are trained and have always conducted themselves in a professional manner.