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Shamballa runs aground in Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve

HeadlineShamballa runs aground in Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve

SAPODILLA CAYE, Toledo District, Fri. June 1, 2019– The Belize Barrier Reef has yet again been impacted by a boat that ran around on it. At about 8:30 last night, Thursday, a 40-foot catamaran sailboat called Shamballa, which was traveling from Cuba to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, ran aground in the Sapodilla Caye Marine Reserve, not far away from the Hunting Caye Forward Operations Base, where the Belize Coast Guard for that area is located.

The boat has since been recovered from off the reef by the Coast Guard and taken to their base, where it has been impounded, and the two Americans who were sailing the boat have been detained, pending the outcome of an investigation to be carried out by the Department of the Environment.

Coast Guard Commander, Gregory Soberanis, said that they received a distress signal sent from the Joint Intelligence Center in Ladyville, from a boat in the vicinity of Sapodilla Cayes, and the Coast Guard Unit stationed at the Coast Guard Hunting Caye Base was alerted of the grounding, and their officers went to the area, found the boat aground and rescued the two persons onboard.

Commander Soberanis said that the man and the woman were taken back to the Hunting Caye base, and the boat was later removed to avoid further damage to the reef.

He said that there is a multiagency response when a boat runs aground on the reef. The Coast Guard is the first to respond; the Department of the Environment will then conduct an investigation to ascertain the extent of the damages to the reef due to the impact, and a dollar value will be put on the damage based on criteria that is used by the Department of the Environment.

The offenders will then be ordered to pay through the court, and after the fine is paid or an arrangement is made to pay the fine, the boat is then released.

Also, the Port of Belize carries out an investigation into the grounding to see if rules and regulations were violated, and this can result in additional charges.

Commander Soberanis said that the cause of the grounding of Shamballa is not yet known.  The grounding of the Shamballa occurred about 79 days after the grounding of the sailboat Chitittu, which also ran aground in the Hunting Caye area on the morning of March 15.

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