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the ReefFrom Belmopan I headed back to Caye Caulker, where decisions to be taken in the capital may soon result in the establishment of a large marine reserve. The reserve will protect more than six miles of the reef, from beyond the northern tip of the caye, south to Caye Chapel, with a width of at least six-tenths of a mile to protect the reef drop-off and the back reef, with its important seagrass beds. The northern section will include more than one mile of the northern tip of the island, extending protection to some of the caye's littoral forest, the most endangered habitat in Belize.
Ellen McRae, a marine biologist and long-time resident of Caye Caulker, has been leading the fight to preserve the forest: she is busy writing a Marine Tour Guide Training Manual, but she took the time to explain to me why Caye Caulker needs the reserve. "Caye littoral forest is one of the smallest area habitats in Belize. It is under the highest development pressure in the country because it occupies the highest land and so no landfill is needed. Littoral forest protects the loose, sandy soil on which it grows from erosion, this in turn protects the seagrass beds and reef from the damaging effects of sediment. The forest supports between two and four time the biomass of inland habitats with similar vegetation height, partly due to the almost year round succession of fruits and berries which provide an abundant food source fro resident and migrant birds."
McRae hopes the reserve will be named the Siwa-ban Reserve, honoring the Yucatec Maya name for the black catbird, a glossy, blue-black relative of the mockingbird. But she says what the reserve is called is not important. "The important thing is to establish and protect a multi-habitat reserve on Caye Caulker. The habitat of the black catbird is shrinking, and we must preserve all the interdependent ecosystems in the coastal zone. None can exist in the absence or degraded presence of the others," says McRae.
Early next morning I accompanied McRae and some visitors on an ecological bird tour. We were delighted by the melodious song of the black catbird. The tour also included a visit to Caye Caulker's totally unregulated garbage dump. This growing, festering sore, right next to the airstrip, is a source of shame to the everyone on the island. It does however contain a number of crocodiles, lurking in the slimy water, and migrant warblers hungrily devour thousands of flies. No one knew what was to be done about it but everyone I spoke to was disgusted, and the village has suffered a massive increase in flies, particularly when the breezes drops.
Another morning I went out with Porfilio Guzman, an old friend of mine and a truly expert fishing guide. This morning, though, I wanted to see how the the lobster season was going, so we spent five hours pulling 120 traps - at an average of two lobsters per trap - barely enough to cover the cost of gas and the time spent catching and cleaning them. Sometimes we would find four or five traps in a row empty, and Porfilio tells me it's even worse now. He suggests a longer closed season, and proper enforcement of the laws. He puts back undersized and breeding lobster, but many others do not, thus destroying the future viability of lobster fishing.
I contacted another friend I've known for from many years, Ramon Rosado, who runs the Big Fish Little Fish tour service from an office near Daisy's Hotel. He arranged for me to visit Swallow Caye, near Belize City, with guide Carlos Miller, who grew up on Turneffe and knows the sea well.
At the caye visitors enjoy a close encounter with manatees. This has been a touchy subject for me, as I consider it difficult and dangerous to attempt to observe manatees in boats equipped with outboard motors. Local tour guides, led by famous veteran Chocolate, have established a self-regulated code of practice: Cut the motor a safe distance away and drift or pole in to near the manatee hole, and no-one is allowed into the water with the manatees. Only two boats are allowed near the hole a t any one time. This seems to be working and we saw a group of five manatee swimming around the boat, apparently completely unconcerned. This grass-roots approach is a positive improvement - the guides recognise their future depends on conservation of the marine resources. But I'd like to see scientific evidence that this level of visitation is sustainable; nobody wants to drive the manatees away.
As we headed south to Sergeant's Caye we spotted five dolphins, apparently a family group, as one was a baby. Everyone on board was happy and relaxed from watching the manatees. The dolphins boosted the contentment factor even further.
Thus, from Caye Caulker comes mostly positive news. There is overwhelming support for the reserve from tour guides and fishermen, and all call for strict enforcement of the law.
The reserve will also prohibit the feeding of fish within its boundaries. I visited the nurse shark and stingray feeding area in the shallows just in front of the reef - it was a free-for-all. Snorkelers were milling all over the bottom, stirring up clouds of sand, some were feeing the rays by hand, obviously a dangerous practice. I understand the excitement of the being close to large feeding fish, but clearly this was not the way to do it. The Hol Chan office says it is always a bad idea to feed fish, as introducing new food may also introduce diseases and may change the fishes natural behaviour. It also makes the smaller fish easy prey for predators and exposes humans to the threat of accidental bites.
One way to overcome a shortage of manpower in the regulatory bodies might be to train and appoint senior tour guides as honorary conservation officers, with powers of arrest if they find regulations being broken. This is a sensitive issue, but substantial measures need to be taken to give Belizeans and visitors confidence that the country's excellent environmental legislation is not just a collection of paper.
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