Piracy Declines Amid Lobster Season Crackdown

It’s lobster season in Belize and while that means fresh seafood for many, it also means the Coast Guard is on high alert. With lobster in high demand, tensions on the water can boil over fast. In fact, several fishermen have recently been targeted in violent attacks linked to disputes over lobster territory. But there’s some good news, according to Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, the number of pirate-related kidnappings and murders is actually going down. He credits increased patrols and smarter strategies for the decline. So, how is the Coast Guard keeping our waters safer this season? Here’s more on that.

 

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“We are at, we are at a point now where we’ve been able to manage that to a very good degree. We are able to reduce the violence. And yes, there is still that threat that exists in between different fractions of the fishing industry. You have the sailing fleet and then you have those who deals with with traps and camps. So, there will always be that friction. Our responsibility here is try to get involved and try to mitigate those friction from becoming violent. So that’s what we’ve been doing and we’ve been working very closely with the Fisheries department to identify those high-risk locations off the coast of Dangriga, out at Turneffe and off the course of Belize City in particular, where these Fisher folks will be vulnerable because of the value of their fishing products. So we recognize that and we try to intervene as much as possible. I met this week with the Commissioner of police as well. We shared that information, share that concern. And we’ve come up with a plan where we’ll be able to support each other, both in Belize City because a lot of these incidents stem from Belize City. So we’re able to establish somewhat of a framework for us to  share intelligence and then share a response to those incidents out at sea. So we, we have a very good comprehensive knowledge of what’s going on. We know who the players are and we are able to target them in order to minimize these potential acts of violence.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Have these operations increased now that lobster season is open? I know we had two recent incidents that were specifically regarding lobster.”

 

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

“Yeah, indeed. Every time this time of the year, once the lobster scene is open we know this well in advance, so we try to get out and provide that necessary security protection for fishing fleet. One of the incidents last week we were called out, one of the fishing vessels was threatened, went down towards gowski. We received that information, we went out there and we escorted them into Belize City. So that’s what we’re doing in trying to maintain that, that relationship and that communication, direct communication with the fishing fleet so that we can respond to provide that necessary protection that they need.”