How to pronounce “belize” in English

Belize, as you probably know, is a global priority for marine conservation, because it sits on a very biodiverse Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

And Belize is really an interesting story and where the work we're going to talk about at the end comes in is

leave Belize.

You can fly over Belize, as I've done, and see these kind of strange zones.

And so when Belize declared its independence afterwards, there was a sort of a convenient ignoring of the fact that they had signed it when they

doing in Belize.

Thatís a photo from Belize.

Weíve got a great Belizean, our whole team that youíre gonna be working with is a Belizean team.

You can see all the different countries-- Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala.

And it connects Mexico with Belize, with Guatemala, and Honduras.

Loggerheads we see down in Belize but are actually one of the main turtles on the southeast US coast.

So even the smallest of islands in Belize and other places in the Caribbean can be quite important for hawksbills.

So a turtle we find in Belize one year might be over in Cuba later on in its life stage.

So the Fisheries Department of Belize, the country of Belize has come quite a long way from historically, when that was the dominant part of their economy.

And it wasn't until 2002 that Belize put in the full protection for all species of turtles.

So this is a map of Belize.

And so the government of Belize not only has been protecting turtles but is increasingly protecting a number species, setting aside areas for no fishing zones,

WCS has been operating in Belize since the early 1980s.

But we do quite a lot throughout Belize to protect Nassau groupers.

Plus you'll see the Belize Fisheries Department, some of our staff, and some of your students from local schools come out building up national pride around sea turtles and

It hasn't been investigated yet in Belize, so we're going-- WCS as well is running conservation programs around the world, also runs four zoos and an

This is one of the Belizeans coming up with a hawksbill.

And a whole set of the Belizean fishery staff will be with you and we have about five permanent staff at this station who will be serving you food, maybe as good as we ate today at

But the sort of lowland region are basically Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala today.

And so there we were last year in Belize swimming in one of the most beautiful oceans of the world.

Conservation Society, does in Belize and elsewhere for turtles.

It's estimated that for about 200 years in Belize's history-- which was British Honduras at the time-- turtles was the primary fishery, the primary marine

But Belize, in many ways, has come almost full circle.

Interestingly, Belize, because it was part of the British government when CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, stopped trade in turtle

exploitation around the world that was signed in the '70s when Belize was still part of the UK.

just declared as the newest marine reserve in Belize.

So just a quick background of WCS in Belize to get us to the point where we'll talk about the trip that

We have a large program to work on shark conservation throughout Belize.

So we're doing quite a lot in Belize to help manage the marine environment.

Belize has cetaceans like a number of other countries.

If you see this when you're in Belize and in the Caribbean in general, you're quite lucky, because a lot of stocks have

In Belize, the government of Belize over the last thirty years protected all of the spawning aggregations of Nassau Grouper and in some places such as Glover's Reef, weíve quadrupled

And I was able to go on a field project that summer in Belize.

And so it was not actually in effect until the late '80s for Belize.

And going in now to talk about the surveys that you'll be doing in Belize or at least some of your friends will be

And for those of you who are here to hear about the trip to Belize, heís gonna talk to us about that.

So this is an island in Belize which WCS has owned for about 20 years.

department, all of work in Belize and in all the countries where we work is done in coordination with the management authority.

as well, most of them Belizean who are working to conserve the area.

Central America, and those regions, and Belize, it shoots both directions, north and south, into the Americas and over centuries.

But single parents, my mom is originally from the country of Belize and came up to the States when

Her parents-- my mom, like I said, is from Belize.

But it turns out that the connectivity is pretty good with places in Mexico, and Belize, and Guatemala.

They're just like, yay, I went to Belize.