There is nothing in that article that looks untrue with what I feel is happening.
Just last night I listened to a presentation by The Hol Chan Marine Reserve about expanding the reserve area to prevent this kind of thing from happening to the mangrove islands next to the reserve at the southern tip of ambergris. The effect would be devastating to the reserve if they where dredged up like the islands in that article, to prevent it they would like to include into the the reserve the sea bed of turtle grasses and mangrove cayes next to the reserve.
The little cayes that I used to take tourist to birdwatch in the back of ambergris have had the sea bed dredged up to fill the island and the mangroves cut after the government of Belize sold them. This dredging and fill is permitted, as in issued written permits, by the ministry. The illustration in this article showing the dredge marks, cut mangrove and the fill location is exactly how it looks when it happens. Cayo Espanto was one of them. It used to have a cute little lagoon in the center of a littoral forest ringed by mangrove. I quit taking tourist to the back of ambergris altogether 6 years ago.
I don't see it as a ruining of Belize but as a warning of what can happen if we continue in this direction, I saw last night the Hol Chan folks are savvy, very aware and taking positive action to prevent it from being our sad epitaph.


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