http://channel5belize.com/#a11

Mexican Billionaire, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, whose luxury yacht anchored on the reef on April seventh, has been ordered to pay the price. According to information reaching News Five, the damage tallied up to the tune of eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars, which Salinas Pliego committed to pay on Holy Thursday before he sailed away. But the Easter holiday came along and the payment was postponed to this week. When contacted by phone today, Chief Environmental Officer, Martin Alegria, who is currently on vacation, told us that Salinas Pliego was expected to make payment at the Central Bank either on Thursday or today. But up to news time, no one can confirm if he has paid up. The Department of the Environment determined the amount of the fine based on the damaged area of the coral reef which measured twenty-five by forty-five meters. Salinas Pliego was reportedly supplied with that information, accepted liability and agreed to make payment.

The Mexican billionaire was never actually arrested. He and his family remained on the yacht but the captain, forty-nine year old Salvador Villeras Eckart of Cancun, Mexico was detained. And as to why the ship anchored on the reef in the first place, Villeras Eckart has stated that the vessel was drifting towards the reef after a rope tangled in the propeller, causing it to shut down. He says that he had to drop anchor to avoid running aground. Salinas Pliego owns the Mexican television station, Azteca and the chain off appliance stores, Electra.

I am curious how they came up with the $800,000 figure. And if and when it is paid, where does that money go?

It is interesting in light of the current discussion on dredging, how the goverment puts a value on the damage done to the reef by the yacht, but seems unconcerned about the dredging.

One can only assume that they, the goverment and elected officials, are either ignorent of the consequences of dredging or find it opportunistic to cash in on someone elses mistakes.

or both,,,

by -

when bruce reads things such as this in the AC papers, he politely refers to them as 'the inexplicable inconsistencies and mysteries of belize'.

i, for one, would be interested to hear if that fine ever does get paid. thanks for posting the update, colly.

Bailout money for BEL

In a sense, it seems positive. I'm initially surprised at the amount of the fine, and hope it does indeed get paid. It might take something like this, an actual large monetary fine, to get those inclined to damage or shrug off damage to the reef to realize it's a very big deal after all. Next time, make it $8 million. US.

On the dredging, no clue other than it's likely tied to economic development in the eyes of some in the gov. They know it's damaging, but seem to feel it's worth it for the development that occurs. I don't agree, but that's my guess as to their way of looking at it.

I am impressed how swiftly Belize was able to investigate the circumstances causing this and determine that the captain was at fault and then determine the monentary damage caused.

In a less developed country this type of investigation would take much longer. But we all know Belize operates on "Belize Time".

Don't get this wrong, I am very into protecting the reef. That reef is the main reason we bought on AC. I am printing out the ACCSD membership form as I type this reply.

First, how does a developer get construction materials to a job site that doesn't have roads except on a barge? I assume that the dredging up north, or anywhere, is needed for that reason- to make the channel deep enough to accomodate the barge. Is this a correct assumption or is there another way of moving material to a job site? If it's a necessity, is there a way to do it that is less damaging to the reef? It's the sediment from the dredging that settles on the reef that is the damage we are talking about here, right?

I am ignorant on the subject of dredging and I think a lot of people don't understand it. I see the pictures of that large dredger but I also have seen those big wide hoses in the water that I thought were moving sand also. Are there more types of dredging than the big dredger? Can less damaging ways be used to make the water deep enough for the barges?

I think you have the wrong topic. Should your thoughts not be under the dredging topic?

The internationally accepted average of US$2,000 per square meter of reef is used as the determination of the fine.