Gillnets Found on Corona Reef During Reef Week

Corona Reef in the Sapodilla Range of southern Belize was found littered with illegal gill nets last Thursday, ironically during Reef Week, a time meant to celebrate and protect the country’s marine treasures.

Volunteers on a routine monitoring trip came across gill nets set directly on the reef. 

Wil Maheia of the Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV) recalled the moment, telling News 5: “We were very shocked because, as you know, Corona Reef is basically the flagship of the reefs of the Mesoamerican Reef.”

Maheia and his team managed to pull up parts of the net but could not remove it all. They marked the GPS location and handed it over to the Belize Coast Guard and TIDE rangers, hoping enforcement teams would finish the job.

Gillnets have been banned in Belize for years, which led Maheia to believe the nets were likely set by fishers crossing from Guatemala. “Gillnets, as you know, is one of the most destructive fishing gears. More than likely, like 99.9%, it was set by Guatemalans because it is close to the Guatemalan border,” he said.

While praising local enforcement agencies, Maheia urged them to step up patrols. With Easter approaching and demand for fish rising in Guatemala, he warned that more illegal nets could appear in Belizean waters.