Letter to the Editor

Posted: 31 Dec 2009 in the Environment Category

After a wave of public protest at the agreement made between PG Fisheries Ltd of Jamaica and the Rio Grande Co-op of Punta Gorda to fish for and process some two million pounds of fish each year from Belizean waters, the government gave a clear promise that the Jamaicans would not be granted the permission they need to fish in coastal waters.
Yet as these pictures, taken on Christmas Day in Punta Gorda clearly show, the Jamaicans are still here - and seemingly still going ahead with building a processing plant of which the Department of the Environment has apparently no knowledge. If fish processing of any kind is to take place in this building, and the indication is that it will, then it seems to be an urgent matter of public and environmental health that the building is inspected, local residents are allowed to put their views forward, and the relevant permissions are obtained.
South Coast Citizens for Sustainable Development understands that the Jamaicans are still determined to fly in the face of the Government of Belize and the great majority of the fishermen and women of Belize. Word is that the Jamaicans are spreading their cash around town - but they should understand that the Belizean fishery is not for sale.
Why are boats with fishing gear and displaying Jamaican flags plain for all to see still moored outside the Co-op building? Why are Jamaicans, who only have tourist visas, still apparently working in Belize on the construction of a building about which the authorities know nothing?
Do Belizean fishermen and women, with lifetimes of skill and knowledge, really need Jamaicans to show them how to fish, as PG Fisheries so arrogantly declares? Jamaicans are here because they have raped and destroyed their own fishery, using dynamite, chemicals, whatever ignorant unskilled method they can find, to destroy what was once one of the pearls of the Caribbean, the Jamaican fishery. Are we seriously going to let them do the same in the Jewel?
The Prime Minister has made it clear that the Jamaicans should go home - why are they still here in defiance of his wishes? And what of the other Jamaican agreements which we hear from the Department of Fisheries are now underway? The people are speaking - is the government listening?
For further information contact Chris Harris as South Coast Citizens for Sustainable Development at (674) 3474 or cell (625) 3590.