Does anyone know if Belize has implimented AIS navigational aids? are they planning to?
Thanks.

Never had anything show up on radar even when going through major shipping channels. I doubt it, they haven't even charted the country yet.

Well don't be too hard on them. I was just at the Toronto boat show, and at least 8 guys at Transport Canada said it was not even possible. Eventually, the "boss" stopped by and straightened it all out. Apparently at higher levels it is the next big push, to separate charts that show water depth etc, from navigational aids, like buoys, channels. The idea being that using AIS all the navigational information can be provided separately, by a separate department, in real time..(ie some special event) even eliminating many actual buoys. The real reason, of course is that it is supposed to be much cheaper to implement, and maintain, especially where you have ice.
Importantly for Belize, there is no need to have everything charted to make the Nav aids available on AIS. It could be a real leapfrog type of technology. Known good virtual channels could easily be shown, along with rules of the road, like speed/no wake zones etc.. And it is now very cheap to have on a boat.