Most of us support fisheries conservation, but where do you stand on bureaucracy and regulation?
Bureaucracy is boring. Terms like “working groups,” “stakeholder engagement,” and “primary management entities” never trend on social media.
Regulations are, by nature, buzzkills. They constrain personal freedom. That’s the point. Americans chafe at regulations. The very idea of government infringing on personal liberty raises patriotic hackles and bunches Old Glory undies.
The thing is, bureaucracy and regulation (when combined with adequate enforcement) are probably our two most effective conservation tools. Showing up to events, buying branded merch, and consuming conservation hashtagged media feels good, but doesn't necessarily do much, you know, for the fish. Every once in a while, though, grassroots community action pushes creaky bureaucratic gears into motion.
If you follow the flyfishing conservation world, you may have heard about the recently released Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve Flats Fishery Management and Sustainability Plan. In 2012, the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve established significant protections for this invaluable marine ecosystem, restricting future development of the area and limiting commercial fishing activities. The recently released management plan suggests ways to bolster those protections and also recognizes potential impacts from the flyfishing community itself. The plan recommends capping skiffs at 20 per day to mitigate the effects of recreational angling.
Kudos to the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association, and all the ministries, agencies, and organizations involved for this important work. But, while Turneffe is the largest atoll in Belize, it’s far from the only one. Nor is it the only marine area in Belize to achieve an important conservation win in the past year. Though the story of Will Bauer Flat (aka Angelfish Caye) didn’t get nearly the buzz that the new Turneffe management plan received, it could represent an even more significant win for Belizean fishing guides.
The spot in question is a 2.27 acre stretch of marl and mangroves that attracts big schools of bonefish and permit. The guides and anglers who've stalked this sliver of submerged land for decades call it Will Bauer Flat—to honor a Belizean permit flyfishing pioneer, A few years ago, however, this highly productive flat was re-christened "Angelfish Caye."
"It's not a Caye!" insists Damien Nurre, the general manager of Blue Horizon Lodge. "There is NO dry land even at the lowest of low tides. Angelfish Caye doesn't exist on any historical maps. At no time in our guides' history of fishing there has it ever been called an island or a caye."
In 2020, a development company in Texas, Angelfish Caye LLC, purchased the area, renamed it, and applied for permits to erect an eco-tourism resort. That name discrepancy may be the reason few people in the flyfishing world noticed when "Angelfish Caye" received clearance from the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) for development.
NEAC held public consultations about the project prior to granting clearance, which garnered little opposition. Published news reports about the permitting dating back to November 23 note “concerns raised by the environmental community,” but it seems the flyfishing world didn’t realize what was happening until dredging markers and other signs of disturbance suddenly appeared on one of their most cherished flats in eary 2024.
Will Bauer Flat is located inside the South Water Caye Marine Reserve, so any development must meet strict standards to mitigate environmental degradation. The proposed project was small—6 buildings, a sewage treatment plant, and a solar power facility. The flat has no dry land, however, so the project required dredging 16,000 cubic yards of seafloor sediment to elevate one acre of land above sea level and create a manmade caye. It also would have removed 1.5 acres of seagrass.
If you’re not into permit fishing, that might sound perfectly reasonable, a relatively small environmental footprint for lodge that would boost economic development in an area that depends on high-dollar tourism. As Kennedy Carillo, C.E.O, of Belize’s Ministry of Blue Economy explained, “as a ministry we have to always ensure we have that balance. Blue Economy is not really an environmental ministry, it is an economy ministry, so we have the responsibility to move the economy of this country through the use of our marine space. But, we also have to ensure we are preserving and conserving our capital, our blue capital, which is why we have these reserves in place.”
If you’re a permit junkie, though, you place a different level of value on 1.5 acres of prime seagrass flats. As soon as they saw what was going on, the guiding and flyfishing community got engaged. The Belize Flats Fishing Association (BFFA) led the charge, launching an advocacy campaign initially focused on halting the seabed dredging, which was about to begin. Just a few weeks later, in February of 2024, the Ministry of Natural Resources suspended the dredging permits. The Ministry claimed that, while the permits were valid, the initial development had not met all the dredging conditions, including putting up containment structures and arranging site visits by the Fisheries Department and the Mining Unit.
The BFFA and local guides didn’t rest on that temporary, procedural halt. They harnessed the momentum, hosting a protest on Will Bauer Flat that garnered national media attention and getting the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust to send a letter to the Belizean government opposing the project. Eworth Garbutt, president of the BFFA, was even charged with damaging a geo-textile curtain placed on the flat during the initial development phase. He posted bond and pled not guilty.
Five months later, in August of last year, the Government of Belize (GOB) announced it was nullifying the sale of Will Bauer Flat through the Land Acquisition Act, because the property "was required for the public purpose of marine environment conservation and the development of the Belize Barrier Reef for a national park and/or protected area.” Owners of Angelfish Caye LLC were invited to submit claims for compensation.
The specifics of what exactly caused the GOB to reverse course on this development have not been disclosed, but it might signal a growing awareness of the economic value flyfishing tourism brings to Belize and the burgeoning power of the local guide community. The ongoing protection of Turneffe is essential, but it's also a massive atoll that houses two top-notch lodges whose owners carry significant influence. The continued funding and attention it recieves is critical, but not surprising.
Will Bauer Flat, on the other hand, is an empty spit in the middle of the Carribean. The fact that the government halted development there amid pressure organized and exerted by the BFFA, a group mostly comprised of Belizean fishing guides, might signal a meaningful shift. Or, maybe someone else with power and connections in the government applied pressure behind-the-scenes. Either way, Belizean flats and oceanic conservation seems to be on a roll, and we’ll take the wins.