Roatan Marine Park November 2007 newsletter
Welcome
to November’s newsletter
Another month gone,
Firstly, we here at the Marine Park would like to wish
all members and supporters a pre-emptive Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year as this will be the final newsletter
of the year. Wherever you’re located in the world,
we wish you all the best and look forward to your continuing
support in the New Year. The Park office will be shut
over the Christmas period, but fear not as the shop
and patrols will be operating as per usual with the
exception of Christmas day and January 1st. With holidays
looming ever closer, we in the office have been slogging
away and been literally traveling from one meeting to
the other these past weeks. It’s been go, go,
go which you will find out all about in this month’s
newsletter.
Patrols:
November was a relatively quiet month regarding arrests
and confiscations with none occurring within the Sandy
Bay West End Marine Park. However, on three separate
occasions, confiscations took place on the South Side.
Between the 3rd and the 14th our boat captain, accompanied
by police, caught a total of six persons with snorkel
gear, spears, and gaffs. The equipment was seized and
the offenders were warned and advised that if caught
again they would be imprisoned. There has been much
animosity between those caught diving and our patrols,
with threats not to just my staff but dive shops who
have assisted us. In order to protect Roatan’s
fragile reefs and their inhabitants, we will have to
work with the local fishing communities to raise awareness
and reduce pressure on the reef by providing alternative
livelihoods. It will be a long and laborious task to
protect the reefs of Roatan, but with hard work, time,
dedication and education, this dream may be possible.
While the Marine Park has been growing in strength and
is now recognized as a legal entity, many others on
the island have been eager to follow suit. In Camp Bay
, Jimmy, owner of the Asylum, has been working with
police from Oak Ridge and patrolling the waters around
the area. In recent weeks they have caught fishermen
with live and dead turtles, speared fish, lobster and
conch. The turtles were released and the fishermen warned
that their actions are illegal and that imprisonment
will follow for re-offenders. In Calabash Bight, Chestlee
Dilbert is hoping to establish a reserve within and
around the Bight. He has a boat and co-operation with
local authorities, yet lacks an engine to enable him
to patrol. We are currently trying to assist him with
his request, so if anyone owns an engine they no longer
need, please contact the office. Blue Ocean Reef is
also wishing to join in with conserving Roatan’s
reefs and have started patrols around the Punta Gorda
area. This has caused some hostility within the fishing
community of Punta Gorda and the Marine Park has attended
several meetings in the past week to rectify this.
With increased cruise ship traffic in recent weeks,
we have designated a boat to solely supervise West Bay
with the intention of reducing persons trampling on
the coral. The coming months will see more and more
of these, not to be rude, “ignoramuses”,
who continue to find the reef a beautiful place to put
their feet on. Once again education is the key. Our
hope is that the current signs and brochures and upcoming
posters and DVD, all of which were purchased with a
WWF awarded grant, can educate these visitors before
they crush every polyp in West Bay . This is not to
say that they are the sole culprits, as both national
and international tourists are to blame.
Mangrove clearing:
On the morning of Thursday November 8th our boat captains
discovered a large area of cleared mangroves adjacent
to the Municipal dump. Upon inspection, it was clear
that a large area of mangroves had recently been decimated.
A worker found at the site confirmed that cutting had
indeed occurred over the past 3 weeks during the heavy
rains when we had been unable to patrol. He had been
hired by the property owner, whose name we will not
divulge, and ordered to clear the whole lot.
According to Article 52, decree no.154/59 of Honduran
Fisheries Law, cutting down mangroves and other trees
is prohibited in the river banks and mouths of the river,
in channels, swamps, lakes, inlets, coves, shorelines,
sheltered areas around the cays, and in all places that
could be serve as areas of refuge or shelter for fish
and oysters.
Since our discovery of the mangrove clearing, both the
municipal police and the Environment Fiscalía
have inspected the site with the intention of prosecuting
the owner. Our patrols not only look for poachers when
doing their rounds, but also inspect for new developments
and clearings. We ask that if any of you see or hear
of new docks or buildings springing up or of mangroves
being cut down, please contact us so we can investigate.
Maintenance and boats:
As those of you that own boats know, it is a considerable
challenge to keep them working properly. This is especially
true of our boats as they operate 50 hours a week. In
between meetings and inspections, James has been working
hard this month to service and repair the engines. In
order to lengthen engine life, the boat captains will
be receiving a boat driving and maintenance course in
the coming weeks. Updated equipment and training will
help enable the captains to call on their knowledge
better to get themselves out of a fix. Safety is paramount
to us and our activities, and proper maintenance will
help to prevent our boat captains from getting stranded
in broken boats.
Meetings:
On November 20th, Grazzia and Alvin traveled to Tegucigalpa
to meet with AFE-COHDEFOR, the Honduran Protected Areas
Administrator, in order to sign a Memorandum of Agreement
that gives the Marine Park the official responsibility
of co-managing Sandy Bay West End Marine Park with BICA.
The document was signed by COHDEFOR’s general
manager Ramon Alvarez Lazzaroni, BICA’s (Bay Island
Conservation Association) president Erick Anderson (as
BICA is at the moment the protected area’s co
manager), and Alvin Jackson from the Roatan Marine Park.
A massive group of journalists and reporters attended
this important event, which was diffused in Tegucigalpa
’s newspaper La Tribuna as well as national radio
and TV news shows.
This upcoming year will finally see PMAIB grant funds
for the conservation of the Sandy Bay-West End protected
area, providing us and BICA with the finances to manage
the Park. We have begun meetings with BICA which will
lead to the establishment of a co-executive work plan
for next year’s Education and Protection Programs.
Sewage systems in West Bay:
The 60 day deadline agreed upon at the meeting held
at Henry Morgan’s on October 1st expired on November
30th. Questionnaires regarding the specifications of
the sewage systems being used were handed out to business
owners. Of the estimated 30 that were distributed, only
6 were returned, highlighting lack of enthusiasm for
dealing with this problem. From this, it has been decided
that formal inspections will begin the week of the 12th.
Businesses that fail to comply with the new regulations
will have their operating permits revoked. With help
from the Marine Park, the Municipality will spend the
next few days performing water quality tests and analyzing
the results to determine where the main problem areas
are located.
School visits:
With the public schools on vacation, this month’s
education program focused on the children at the Alternative
School. On November 21st, James gave a presentation
to the 5th and 8th grades on the importance of the reef
and the problems it is facing. During the interactive
portion of the presentation, the children were encouraged
to come up with ways they could help the environment.
The children were very receptive and eager to learn,
and many of the children came up with innovative ideas
of ways to reduce their energy and material consumption.
After the presentation, James and a teacher at the school
took the 8th grade snorkeling. The day was a great success
and further presentations are planned for the school
Inspections:
As the development on Roatan continues to grow at an
exponential rate, we must fight to reduce the environmental
impacts. We were invited by SERNA (Secretary of Natural
Resources and the Environment) to be part of the SINEIA
(National System of Environmental Impact Evaluation),
and have been making joint inspections on several large
developments trying to get environmental building permits.
After inspecting present a set of observations and recommendations.
SERNA uses these to create an environmental mitigation
and compensation plan that developers are required to
follow.
Thanks again to all those that continue to support us
and hope you all have a pleasant Christmas and New Year!
If anyone has any questions drop
by any time, email us at roatanmarinepark@yahoo.com
or give us a call at 349-4138, 445-4206, 445-4208.
Nick, Grazzia, James.
For additional information about
WWF and all of the amazing things that
they are doing worldwide for all of us, visit http://www.wwf.org
Check out the Coral Reef Alliance
and discover how they are helping Protected Areas worldwide
at http://www.coralreefalliance.org
Discover how Project AWARE is "Conserving
underwater environments through education, advocacy
and action" at http://www.projectaware.org
If you want to know more about fish
you see in the park, visit www.fishbase.org, which has
an index of almost 30,000 species of fish.
If you want to know more about the
reefs, go to www.reefbase.org
which contains global information regarding coral reefs.
|
