Sharks Thrive Again in Belize Waters

Shark numbers surge again after a decade-long decline from 2009 to 2019 in the waters of Belize. This resurgence is the result of a unique partnership between shark fishers, marine scientists, and government authorities, who implemented protective measures across Belize's three atolls to help safeguard these iconic creatures.

Caribbean reef shark
Ecology & Science

According to Kirah Forman-Castillo, the national coordinator of MarAlliance’s Belize programme, fishers have reported seeing more sharks than ever in the waters of Belize, including in areas where they were previously rare.

X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

The Wit Artificial Reef in Belize

Belize is a country blessed with an abundance of fabulous coral reefs, to which its newest underwater attraction—the sunken ship "The Wit"—adds another dimension. Angelique Brathwaite has the story.

Words:
Angelique Brathwaite
Images:
Beth Watson
A scuba diver explores the nooks and crannies of the Wit.
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Travel & Trips

The new artificial reef site is located at Turneffe, the island’s largest and most biodiverse coral atoll, some 32km east of Belize. Turneffe also encompasses a network of productive mangrove forests and seagrass beds within its flats, creeks and lagoons.

Environmental Project restores Belize Reefs

With increasingly severe storms and coral bleaching due to climate change, the world’s coral reefs are threatened like never before. When Hurricane Iris struck southern Belize in 2001, the country's corals were decimated. Yet within a decade, a radical restoration project brought the reef back to life.

Ecology & Science

When Lisa Carne first visited Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 1994, the reef was vibrant and bursting with life, abundant with fish, corals, lobsters, crabs, sponges and sea turtles. After the hurricane, it was a scene of desolation, the seabed a swathe of rubble dotted with a few surviving corals. Hurricane Iris not only killed corals but uprooted their structure, making recovery more difficult.

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Belize's Great Blue Hole

We jump into the water as a pair of bull sharks swim past. As we descend into the depths of the Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize, the light slowly dims. Bubbles from our regulators form silvery plumes that cascade to the surface.

Words:
Bill Becher
Images:
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Travel & Trips

At 60 feet (18m), there is a noticeable thermocline as we descend into cooler water.

When we reach 110 feet (33m), we see giant stalactites hanging from a limestone ledge. Slowly finning, we pass them in what amounts to a topless underwater cave. Because so little sunlight penetrates to this depth, we don’t see much evidence of life. Below us is a purple emptiness.

X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

Southern Belize

Hello. My name is Kelly and I’m a dive-aholic. I freely admit it. I’m unabashedly, totally and completely addicted to travelling the world scuba diving. I love soaking up foreign cultures and engaging in lively conversations with friendly locals. I love sampling exotic foods that make your mouth sing and your stomach angry. I love taking that first giant stride into turquoise waters and discovering what new and fascinating critters await in the depths below. Heck, I even love the long and cramped, often overbooked and under-serviced flights one has to endure to reach these remote destinations.

Words:
Kelly LaClaire
Images:
Southern Belize. Photo by Kate Clark
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Travel & Trips

But there is one thing I am not a fan of—and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here—and that is the sagging, bitter disappointment I always feel when having to share my vacation with packs of people crowding every dive site and swarming each sight-seeing destination.

It’s not that I’m selfish— well, okay, maybe I am just a little— and it’s not that I don’t want fellow travellers to have great vacations and wonderful excursions for themselves, because I really do. They deserve it just as much as anyone else.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in sharks

Researchers have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in seven species of sharks and redfish captured in waters off Belize, Florida, Louisiana and Massachusetts.

While the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in sharks and other fish does not necessarily harm them the findings point to a growing problem for human health.
Ecology & Science

A team of researchers led by Jason Blackburn of the University of Florida sampled and tested 134 fish living in coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, and Massachusetts for signs of drug-resistant bacteria, using a suite of twelve common antibiotics. Resistance was found everywhere they looked, to varying degrees. Pronounced resistance to an array of drugs was found in sharks in Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys, for example.

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