Marine Biologist Says New Shark Discovery is Good News for Belize

Myvett says while the discovery is great news for the scientific community and for fisheries management in Belize, he expressed hope that it will also give Belize’s marine scientists an opportunity at doing research on the species of shark. In fact, he hopes that Belizean marine biology students will get first dibs on whatever research needs to take place in the future on Belize’s marine life.

 

George Myvett, Marine Biologist

“Sharks in Belize do enjoy a certain level of statutory protection. So, for example, it is illegal to harvest or capture sharks. It is also illegal, generally, to capture the whale shark, the other sharks. There are also regulations protecting them. So for example, one kind of fish or sharks are within a radius of two miles of the atolls and the atolls for us are obviously the Glover’s Reef Atoll, Lighthouse Reef Atoll, and Turneffe Atoll. Generally, there’s about fifteen hundred square miles of sea that no one can capture or interfere with these sharks. As I look at the work that has been done, it has been done by obviously a non-native, a non-Belize research institution. As a Belizean scientist, I would like to see, going forward, that we have Belizeans associated with these studies. So for example, I would want to see a Galen University  and of course a University of Belize associated with these studies.”