From: Diana Sturm
Date: September 1999
Subject: Belize manatee
To: [email protected]
This is a report from Wil Maheia, director of the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment, from Punta Gorda, Belize, Central America. He can be reached at [email protected]. His organization is a NGO and works closely with The Nature Conservancy.
Subject: Brutally Slaughtered
On Friday 28th August when Belizeans should be out being proud of the fact that
close to 90% of the total registerd population came out to vote we were infact
greeted with yet another shameless killing of manatees in our waters. At this
time manatee is an endangered specie and Belize has the largest population of
manatees in Central America, and that figure is estimated only at about 500. If
in fact three manatees were brutally slaughtered then we should be ashamed of
ourselves for not being able to educate the public and enforce the law against
killing of these animals.
On Thursday night I got the tip from local fisherman Wallace Young that manatee meat is being sold in Livingston, Guatemala. I already know that Guatemala has no manatees so I knew right away that if this fisherman does not have a fish story then another one of our manatees has been sacrificed. After no sleep election night and some investigating I put together a team comprising of tide scientific staff and a local fisherman and off we went to the manatee zone. We patrolled the waters slowly looking for evidence of slaughtered manatees. After about an hour all we saw was beauty and a sea turtle weighing close to a hundred pounds swimming in crystal clear waters. I was just about to say " hey I am glad that this is a false alarm" when the fisherman said lets check that stuff floating over there. When we got there it was such a disgusting site. Another manatee with an estimated weight of close to two thousand pounds brutally murdered. The poor animal was whack over the head the tail sliced and a rope tied around its neck where they must have dragged it until it drowned. Then they pulled it into the mangroves and with sharp knives only took the prime meats and and left the remains for the vultures in the area.
This is not the first time this has happened but we should make sure this does not happen again. It is time to demand the help and cooperation from those who can help. TIDE staff with its limited personell and resource has patrolled this area on a weekly basis for over a year now. We have only one boat for over 800 square kilometers of water and we make sure that boat is available to both Forest and Fishereies Departments since we are the only organization with a boat in this entire district. Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) staff has no weapons and no powers of arrest so realizing the limitations of the departments that has the arrest powers we invited both Fisheries and Forestry Department to use our boat whenever they want to. We invited them to tell us when they want to use the boat. In the name of conservation and to improve the relationship between GOB and NGO we even offered to provide a driver and fuel at no cost to the GOB. All we want to do is to make sure we continue to protect the biodiversity of the area that is increasingly under pressure with people from Guatemala. This is the eight month of the year and so far the Fisheries department has only taken us up on our offer a few times. The forestry department has been very good about going out on patrols with us. We just can't figure out why the fisheries department personell prefer to sit in the office instead of going out and doing the job they are being paid to do. The two times or so that they have been out with us we found people that we could have arrested for illegal activities but both times no arrest were made. We hope that after yet another manatee murder they change their minds and begin to take us up on our offer.
We at TIDE would like to bring this to the attention of others, so if you have a web-page and would like to put up some pictures of the slaughtered manatee we would be happy to send you a photo electronically so you can help spread the word around. We found one carcass but after speaking with other fishermen we have learned that three manatees were slaughtered. So far we have not found the remains of the others.
Wil Maheia
TIDE, Toledo Institute for Development and Environment
For more information please respond directly to Wil Maheia ([email protected])
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