Fishermen Speak up Against Northern Fishermen Co-op

The Northern Fishermen Cooperative is, once again, in a financial crisis, and its members say they have finally had enough. As one of Belize’s largest fisheries cooperatives with around two thousand members, it is responsible to ensure that its members have access to the resources and funds needed to fulfil their duties as fishermen and pay them a fair wage for their goods. So what happens when its members do not get paid? That is what News Five’s Britney Gordon found out today.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Members of the Northern Fishermen Cooperative are speaking up against what they describe as ‘mistreatment’ they’ve been receiving for several years.

According to some members, the cooperative has struggled to manage its funds for over a decade. The fishermen who make up the co-op say they’ve borne the brunt of this for the majority of that time. Fisherman Hopeton Westby Jr. who has been a member of the cooperative for the past twenty-eight years shared his grievances to us about the situation.

 

Hopeton Westby Jr, Fisherman

“Well the cooperative have a problem with money. They don’t have money to pay us for a product sometimes. You come in, you have to wait a whole week for your money.  You can’t go back out and so on. Bad shape with financing, the co-op. You can’t get ice when you need the ice. The ice machines are always down. You need ice to take care of your product and you can’t go to the cayes without that. Mismanagement at the co-op is a big problem.”

 

 

 

Westby said that members often resort to borrowing money to survive when they fail to receive payment.

 

Fisherman Harry Hendy is a recent member of the co-op. He says that though his time there has been short, he has experienced the same frustration as his colleagues. Hendy says he is fortunate enough to be in a position where he can still afford to pay his employees.

 

 

 

Harry Hendy, Fisherman

“I’m fortunate enough that when they don’t have money my workers they need their money. So I just try to let them get paid and I wait just until they’re ready, but that’s always be the issue because when guys come in they want their money they work with me. So I got to make sure I get their money for them and I just wait until they’re ready to give me their to pay me. It’s just frustrating sometimes, but like I said, I just try to flow with it because there’s nothing else we could do. We just got to wait for them to do what they’re doing. And that’s all we could do.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Is it like a feeling of helplessness?”

 

Harry Hendy

“Helplessness, like not even appreciative that a member is supposed to feel appreciative. These are one keep the co-op going. So if we’re not feeling appreciative that’s not a good thing. It’s like the communication is not even there.”

 

We also spoke to members of the Belize Federation of Fishermen (B.F.F.) who told us that the concerns of the cooperative’s members are their concerns as well because of the large overlap in membership. B.F.F. Director, Nigel Martinez says that the team has been doing their best to assist the fishermen.

 

Nigel Martinex, Director, B.F.F.

“As of recent, it has gotten extremely worse over the years. So while we continue to see the decline of our products, we’re also seeing a decline in the cooperative structure. And it has been said through a recent report, not so recent that the cooperative system have been unsustainably financially structured. And because of that, we have seen gross mismanagement across the board. And it’s a major concern because as the guys have mentioned, they are unable to get the necessary support and resources that they need in order to go out and fish. The more challenging for them is that some of the incentives for being a member that were in place, example access to social security access to educational support, those things have all failed over time.”

 

Also speaking on the matter was the technical advisor of the B.F.F., George Myvette who referenced a report titled The Financial Performance and Sustainability of the Fishing Cooperatives of Belize by Ramon Alberto Carcamo Jr. In this report, Carcamo outlines the failings of the cooperative’s structure and predicts its eventual collapse.

 

 

 

 

 

George Myvette, Technical Advisor, B.F.F.

“Major work has been done in relation to analyzing the financial and management circumstances of these cooperatives, I am a retired public officer, former senior fisheries officer, and I will tell you that there has always been for a while challenged with the cooperatives generally but certainly with Northern. One of our officers , mister Ramon Carcamo, did a master’s thesis in relation to analysis circumstances in these cooperatives. That thesis was submitted and approved in I believe 2012.  Ans all the way back from 2012, a part of his analysis looked at risk analysis. And what the risk analysis was saying for Northern at the time was that there was an eighty-five percent probability that the cooperative would fold.”

 

Westby explained that the members rarely ever meet with the administration and are given little information as to what happens behind the scenes of the operations.

 

Hopeton Westby Jr

“We tried to speak, but we only speak to the chairman of the co-op and persons like that because we don’t really come together and go in. We haven’t had an annual meeting for the last, what, three to four years. They didn’t have an annual meeting that all the members come together and talk to them and see how the co-op is running. And last time we had one of those, about, what, 2018, I think, 2019. I think it was the last one.”

 

 

 

Myvette further explained that the future for fisheries cooperatives has always been grim, as so many species of fish are threatened and have limited production rates.

 

George Myvette

“What is the situation in Belize? And this is Based on the look, the latest information is approaching what I would refer to as dire.  The.  Science is telling us.  That much of the stocks are on a path of depletion.  Or they’re fully fished. Summit foundation looked at twenty species. And that included lobster, conch. And some of the fin fishes, snapper, grouper. Of the twenty species that they looked at, eighteen were in problems. That is not good. That is not good from a sustainable standpoint. It’s not good economy wise. It’s not good for the environment. And it’s not good socially..”

 

News Five reached out to the Northern Fishermen Cooperative for a comment, but we were informed that it would not be possible today due to all-day meetings. Britney Gordon for News Five.