Conservation groups and governments of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize are joining forces to save the West Indies manatee (Trichechus manatus), an endangered marine mammal that lives in the lagoons of the Gulf of Honduras, which is shared by the three nations.

Manatees average thirty-feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds. They have small heads and bulbous upper lips covered with bristles, a pair of short, rounded forward flippers, and their rotund bodies taper off in horizontal paddles. Gentle animals, they spend their entire lives submerged, feeding on aquatic vegetation. Only their nostrils break the water's surface when they rise to breathe.

Last July, conservation groups, government agencies, and fishermen came together to discuss how they could work together to better protect manatees. Wil Maheia, executive director of the Toledo Institute for Development and the Environment (TIDE) in Belize, estimates that only about 150 manatees remain in the Gulf of Honduras. He attended the July conference, which was sponsored by the Trinational Alliance of Non-government Organizations in the Gulf of Honduras and Guatemala's National Council of Protected Areas and Environmental Law and Sustainable Development Institute (IDEADS). Funding came from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Central America conservation program.

Maheia says that the biggest threats to manatees in Belizean waters are fishermen from Guatemala who slaughter the animals and sell the meat in their own country. TIDE established boat patrols to deter the killers, but more patrolling is needed, he admits. In October, TIDE discovered three more slaughtered manatees.

Conference participants concluded that Guatemala and Honduras should also patrol their waters. According to Jeanette de Noack and Caroline Amilien of IDEADS, other recommendations included:

• Prohibiting the use of huge nets staked out by fishermen that trap and drown manatees.

• Regulating boat velocities.

• Speeding boat propellers often fatally injure slow swimming manatees.

• Expediting sanctions against violators, so cases don't require months of judicial hearings; and unifying sanctions in all three countries, so fines and punishments are similar.

• Training government officials and judges, so they better understand the regulations against killing and harming manatees and their habitat.

In spite of efforts by park guards who patrol protected areas along the gulf coast in Honduras, some fishermen continue to fix nets that can drown manatees, according to Dennis Sierra, director of Jeannette Kawas National Park.

Another threat to the marine mammals is pollution from sugar refineries and other industries in the nearby city of San Pedro Sula, he says.

Two judges from the gulf coast of Honduras attended the July meeting, Sierra notes, and afterward the conservation group PROLANSATE took them on a tour of the national park. "They didn't know the park, even though they live right there," he reports. "They were fascinated. Since then and for the first time, three fishermen were prosecuted and paid hefty fines for illegally staking nets and for fishing in off-limits zones".

Sierra and Maheia agree that the July meeting and subsequent activities are positive steps toward saving the manatee, but more funds are needed to make the trinational strategy work. Amilien of IDEADS emphasizes that the save-the-manatee campaign also depends on "the will of the three governments to work with each other and the conservation groups". @

Contacts:

TIDE,
P.O. Box 150, Punta Gorda, Belize,
Telefax 501/72-2274
tide@btl.net

IDEADS,
3a Ave. 4-68, Zona 1, Apdo B, 01001 Guatemala,
Telefax 502/253-2061
ideads@intelnet.net.gt

PROLANSATE,
Apdo. 32, Calle del Sol, Tela, Atlántida, Honduras
Telefax 504/448-2042
fprocans@hondutel.hn