researchers are able to exchange information, share resources, and work together to better understand Belize’s fisheries. They encourage a dialogue among stakeholders and teach each other new skills. By the end of the monitoring season, both Blow and Chevis were skilled turtle catchers too.
Blow and Chevis’ collaboration with MarAlliance’s team of Belizean fishers has allowed for a deeper understanding of sea turtle populations along the Mesoamerican reef. Every turtle captured offered insights that can better conservation efforts in the future. And unfortunately, other management practices might be necessary. Two of the turtles that the team satellite tagged at another atoll were captured by fishermen and transported to Honduras, where there is still a market for sea turtle meat. To skeptics, an alliance among scientists and fishermen may seem unlikely. On the contrary, it’s a collaboration that can, and more importantly should, be reproduced in other parts of the world. Scientists and fishermen must work together to benefit conservation initiatives, local communities, and the lives of future generations. For threatened and critically endangered sea turtles, it is crucial that such a relationship exists. That unexpected meeting with a group of skilled fishermen and their data-collecting colleagues might just be what keeps a turtle alive. The immediate benefits might not be apparent, but when policymakers are advised to create more marine protected areas or to hire more fisheries wardens to monitor those that already exist, they will rely on the data generated by a team of commercial fishers and marine scientists.
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