Spawning Aggregations in Belize: Signs of Life in the Seas that Need Protection (Part 3 of 3)

View of spawning aggregation. Photo Credit: Alexander Tewfik

This story continues from parts 1 and 2.

By Aaron Humes:

Challenges of management

The challenges and threats to the SPAGs and indeed the associated fish stocks require dedicated management. The Fisheries Department is charged with regulatory management including research, public awareness, enforcement, environmental monitoring, and the crafting of legislation, plans, and policies for the fisheries sector.

The Department works in concert with fisher organizations and conservation-oriented non-governmental organizations, researchers, and other institutions, under the aegis of the Belize National Spawning Aggregation Working Group (BNSAWG) which was formed in 2001.

Legislatively, the Government has established marine protected areas (MPAs) including zones designated ‘no take’ zones. Recently, these have been expanded in some areas in relation to the Government deal with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) known as the ‘Blue Bond’ Debt for Nature Swap initiative. These MPAs make for increased and improved enforcement and environmental monitoring. A majority of SPAGs fall within MPAs and particularly marine reserves. The management of most of these marine reserves has been delegated to the NGO community. The goal behind the management of the SPAGs and the spawning stocks focuses on the growth, replenishment, and recovery of the various species, and the restoration and rehabilitation of the habitat. The Fisheries Department and the SPAG Working Group have been coordinating with partners in the Mesoamerican sub-region such as the Healthy Reef Initiative (HRI) and Comunidad Y Biodiversidad (COBI) to sustain the SPAGs initiative over the long term.

Both fishermen we spoke to, Augustine and Guzman, say the Department and the Belize National Coast Guard, as well as the various conservation organizations, are doing well enough with their limited resources, allowing fishermen to venture into marine reserves with special licenses. However, Guzman noted, “the people that do the management of those areas were the ones that give special licenses; every year you get a license to go fish there. Now that the Government took over that part, they give special license to anybody…when SEA (Southern Environmental Association) was controlling that, they knew exactly who were the traditional fishers and who were the sport fishers, especially people who are from the area.”

Augustine, meanwhile, observed that he still sees only a limited population of fishermen inside the Reserve. But he has observed that as the catches grow smaller, people are leaving the industry for tourism as a more sustainable means of living. He believes the authorities and organizations that claim to be working for the industry should start giving back: “We are not getting back what we should be getting in a sense; a lot more areas are starting to become more protected, they are zoning out further and lots of fishermen basically that don’t have other means of finding work [lose out]…if we keep on taking away from fishers who live off this, what will be left for their families?”

He continued, “…fishers do understand what it takes to have many years of fishing ahead of them; I do think fishers want to help all the agencies that are involved to make this happen. But fishers need to be consulted, because at the end of the day, a lot of times when these agencies want information and stuff like that, the fishers are who they run to because the fishers are out there on a daily basis…and many times, [the funds] don’t get back to fishers.” He suggested that deep sea fishing could become a game-changer for the industry, but right now, only those that can afford the best equipment take advantage and remove Belize’s resources without benefit to us. It has become impossible, he said, to obtain a good catch along the coast, forcing fishers to go out further and costing more to the individual fisher, resulting in higher prices on the local market.

The efforts of the BNSAWG focus in large measure on the Nassau grouper. This has been mainly a function of the severe state of depletion of the species. According to the Fisheries Department, “Spawning aggregations sites are monitored by conducting visual surveys guided by the Reef Fish Spawning Aggregation Monitoring Protocol developed for the Mesoamerican Reef and Wider Caribbean”. Monitoring activities are conducted at seven sites on a regular and sustained basis from Rocky Point (Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve) in the north to Nicholas Caye (Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve) in the far south.

In 2024, the Healthy Reefs Initiative Reef Report Card for Belize reported a comeback for commercial and herbivorous species with increases in fish populations from 93 to 140 percent, relative to the scenario for the 2021 HRI Report. The increase in fish populations has been attributed to increases in patrols, an enhancement in collective conservation efforts, as well as increased political will, greater education efforts and an increase in resources. There is still more work to be done and challenges to be faced. The next generation will have to take up the challenge and the burden of protecting these SPAG sites and the species associated therewith so that they remain viable and in good stead for generations to come.

This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN).

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