Not too many people care about ecology but Belize is overfishing its lobsters very heavily. Enforcement of existing laws is lax, fishermen commonly catch juvenilles and cut them into pieces to sell on the black market, there is no limit on how many lobsters a fisherman can catch at a time, they can use an unlimited number of traps, they can catch at night if they want (when all the lobsters are out) , the hook stick fishermen oftentimes break and turn over corals while trying to catch a lobster, and Belize has an extremely long season open for lobster of 8 months which is ridiculous. Belize lobster fishermen are prepared to hunt lobster to shallow water extinction (deep water lobsters will survive because it is illegal to scuba dive and hunt lobster, although some lobster fishermen do it). The fewer there are, the higher the market price will be and the more thoroughly they will be hunted commensurate with the incentive.
The Lobsterfest is all good and fun for some people but it is just fiddling while Rome burns as far as the lobsters are concerned. The cultural patrimony of Belize and its fishing traditions is now long gone since commercialization of fishing is the norm today. The little local guy who just feeds his family has taken a back seat to the guy with a thousand traps and a fleet of six boats with ten to fifteen guys on his payroll.
People who scuba dive should actually want to see an abundance of marine life, lobster included, in places that they visit. There is a mentality that is hard to understand of the scuba diver who does not care what people do to their reefs as long as he can see something big, a turtle or spotted eagle ray perhaps, so he can tell his friends about it back home. The reef is a very complex aggregate and the little denizens are just as important as the big ones, and can even lead to the downfall of the big ones when they are no longer there. The entire chain needs protection not a blase´ attitude of partying till its all gone because tomorrow may never come.
Instead of gorging on beer and lobster, scuba divers should stand back and lobby for more marine reserves with protected status. If one looks at areas of the world that the reef is making a comeback, they are places like Ningaloo in Australia which is a fully protected marine reserve. With all the pressures facing the coral reefs including but not limited to global warming, bleaching, sewerage and sedimentation from runoff causing algae blooms and suffocation, careless people, overfishing,and carbon in the atmosphere creating carbolic acid in the oceans which eats away at the limestone skeletons of corals, we scuba divers should all care a little bit more.
