Members of the Caye Caulker tourism industry are up in arms tonight following the documentation of a shark slaughtering near the village over the weekend. According to twenty-five-year-old Caye Caulker tour guide James Rosado, on Saturday, February 28, he and his girlfriend were fishing when they came upon the gory sight of a sailboat covered with blood as several men on board cleaned and gutted approximately twenty nurse sharks near Bajo Caye, located northwest of Caye Caulker.
Rosado says he also spotted two speedboats a short distance away which had a seine net between them which had netted several sharks. The tour guide says in all, he counted approximately thirty dead sharks between the boat and the net.
He pulled out his camera to take pictures, but Rosado says he had only taken four shots when one of the men onboard the vessel allegedly told him, “If yu no stap tek me pitcha, I wah kill yu and yu camera!” The fisherman then reportedly put a knife in his mouth and dove into the water in Rosado’s direction.
Rosado says he feared for his life and sped off to get help from the police and fisheries personnel on Caye Caulker. But those efforts were unsuccessful and the entire incident left Rosado frustrated and infuriated.
In response, he has printed his pictures on fliers and is distributing them around the island. He hopes the fliers will generate support for a ban on the commercial fishing of nurse sharks in the area.
Rosado has been working as a tour guide for the last seven years and his tours include taking tourists to snorkel and dive at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and at the Shark and Ray Alleys off San Pedro and Caye Caulker.
He believes what he refers to as “a dramatic decline” in the number of sharks visible within the protected areas over the last year can be attributed to overfishing. The tour guide says since Saturday’s incident, he has seen some of the fishermen from the boat selling shark fillets to residents and restaurateurs on Caye Caulker.
Rosado says, “If this is allowed to continue, it will ruin the tourism industry…soon if you come to Caye Caulker to see a shark, you might have to go to a restaurant, not to sea”.
It is not illegal to catch and kill any number of sharks, as no species living in Belizean waters are listed as “endangered.”
According to Fisheries Administrator Beverly Wade, no official report about Rosado’s incident has been filed with the department, but she told us that a team was dispatched to the area on Monday afternoon to verify that one, the men on board the vessel are licensed to fish; two, that the sharks were not caught within a marine reserve and three, if the sharks are being sold to markets in Mexico, Honduras or Guatemala, that the men have an export permit to do so.
Rosado’s pictures have already helped investigators, as one of the pictures shows the vessel’s registration number (CZL0057), which should significantly assist in locating her captain and crew.
According to Wade, the investigating team’s initial report has verified that the vessel and the crew are properly licensed and are from Sarteneja. Her captain and owner’s names have not been released. The men told Fisheries personnel they caught the sharks near Cancrejo Caye, which is further north, closer to Ambergris Caye. The fishermen say the catch is only intended for the local market.
Shark fishing is not a new activity in Belize, as shark panades has always been a popular dish. But shark fishing is big business right now. During the Lenten season, our neighbours consume more fish than any other time of the year. Typically, the shark is covered with salt and sold as “corned” fish. But outside the Christian community, shark is also a prized commodity for members of the Asian population. Shark fin soup is a delicacy, as it is believed to contain male enhancement capabilities as well as a general medicinal value.
The prices of shark fins vary on the size, width and thickness of the fin, but dried, untreated fins can fetch as much as fifty dollars a pound. For comparison, readers should note that grouper and snapper fillets sell for approximately ten dollars a pound.
Fishing industry insiders say from an economic perspective alone, it is easy to see why fishermen would target sharks. The Belize Audubon Society has been advocating for shark protection legislation for several years, but Lucita Lee, the Marine Protected Areas Program Manager at BAS, says those discussions have yet to move from talking points to actual legal limitations.
The sharks found off Caye Caulker and San Pedro are generally nurse sharks, considered to be docile creatures. In fact, tourists flock to the marine protected areas off the islands to get up close and personal pictures with the sharks. Outside the reef, bigger sharks, with much bigger teeth, patrol the waters.
According to Wade, commercial shark fishing is predominantly confined to the deeper waters of the south and to traditional fishing communities along the coast. In addition to investigating the Rosado incident, the Fisheries Department is also looking into reports that fishermen licensed to use nets have been putting their nets directly on the reef.
Environmentalists have condemned net fishing because the nets do not only catch the targeted species, but wreak havoc among other species as well. But fisheries managers say the public should not be quick to judge the fishermen.
Wade told us, “It is unfair to target the fishermen …they have not done anything bad. It may be unsightly for the tour guides because they see these sharks every day, but to the fishermen, this is a good catch. What we need now is a management regime.”
According to Wade, the Fisheries Advisory Board will be meeting later this month to consider draft legislation which will include restrictions and special licenses for shark fisheries to eliminate any possibility of the unsustainable fishing of sharks, especially during mating periods when the animals are most vulnerable.
The Fisheries Advisory Board held its inaugural meeting two weeks ago and is chaired by Lindsay Garbutt. If approved by the board, the Statutory Instrument would only need to be signed off by the Minister to become legislation.
It is yet to be determined if the area off Bajo Caye or the spot near Cancrejo Caye are mating grounds or if the sharks were caught individually along the reef.