From Lan Sluder of BelizeFIrst.com

According to reports on one of the scuba forms, the Nekton Pilot, one
of three liveaboards in Belize, has decided to pull out of Belize.
The reasons reportedly given by the operator are:
It's simply no longer cost effective to do business in BZE.

Cited reasons include:

1. Airfares to BZE have gotten very expensive and as a result customer
traffic is way, way down.

2. Local fuel prices are outrageous.

3. Boat repair costs are thru the roof.

4. All crew must have work permits i$$ued by BZE.

5. The local bureaucracy is difficult and costly to deal with.

Too bad as the BZE itineraries were very nice.

This major liveaboard is apparently leaving Belize permanently, leaving just the Aggressor and Peter Hughes boats. Also apparently those two companies are merging, which suggests that from three large US-funded liveaboards Belize will be down to just one.

Sign of the times?

http://www.scuba-forum.com/forums/nekton_pilot/nekton_pilot.html
BELIZE CITY, Belize (24 Dec 2007) — A dive guide working on the Nekton Pilot is missing and presumed dead after a scuba diving accident in Belize.

Belize officials told CDNN that Cory Monk, 35, disappeared on Thursday, December 20 while night diving off the Florida-based liveaboard.

Monk, a popular dive instructor who led dive groups and taught scuba diving courses, had been working on the Nekton Pilot for about seven years.

After he failed to return to the dive boat, the Nekton Pilot crew launched a search but found no trace of their fellow crew member despite perfect weather and calm seas....
pretty bad review in the scuba forum

sour grapes whining
Did they think they could work with out work permits?
I wonder if they have experience working in any other Caribbean nations. my experiences with the turks and Cacos bureaucracy make me love belize.

Nekton has repositioned both of it liveaboards to the USVI. They also dive in the Bahamas.

With the departure of Nekton and the consolidation of Agressor and Peter Hughes, maybe there's a new opportunity for local operators?

I think there is one guy who operates a small liveaboard catamaran from Cucumber Beach, and of course there used to be one or two small liveaboards based in San Pedro.

--Lan Sluder

Good lemonaid Lan
thanks

The Cucumber Beach operator is http://www.catchartersbelize.com/ of course there's always Katkandu http://www.belizecharters.com/, TMM http://www.sailtmm.com/TMMRoot/Belize/index.cfm. Moorings also does crewed charters out of Placencia as does Frank Gagliano http://belize-sailing-charters.com/

These are small ops of course but can take up to 8 divers plus crew on some of their larger boats.

I can see the high airfares, tourism slowing down, high fuel and high import taxes on parts for maintenance, but I don't agree with the work permits and bureaucracy:

You have irritating bureaucracy everywhere, even more so in the first world. What about tour guide licenses? Everybody else needs them, except the liveaboards, so that is an advantage in Belize! And I will not even try to start to work in, for instance, the USA without a work permit, why should Belize be different?

Guess there was too much supply and too little demand for them to make a living (a tourism related problem we are going to see more often in the near future).

Short, that work permit is a "green card" in the US and then you can work anywhere that will hire you. I do understand the need for "work permits" in Belize.

Rephrase and question: "Would I get a Green Card just like that, when I walk in to a US Labour office and say I - a Belizean - am going to be working on a foreign boat that will operate in US waters, serving US tourists?"

In the USVI, I guess Nekton won't need work permits for its U.S. citizens. Certainly more and cheaper air service. Fuel costs aren't much different, maybe a little less. Food and other supplies (like booze) cheaper -- the USVI is a duty-free area. Don't know about boat repairs costs.

Can't believe that diving around the USVI is as good as that around the Belize atolls.

--Lan Sluder

Belizean Tour Guides are trained well and have the benefit of a life time of experience in local waters. Live aboard need to use local guides. A work permit for the cook might be another issue.
As a tourist diver I enjoy a local guide when I travel outside of Belize much more than a non local.
There is a law about using non citizens of Belize in work related to the tourism industry.I feel like its a good one.