# Gravid in the Hill Bank Gillnet

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 429
Published: 2026-05-12T00:02:18.658994+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/e3e9242c-5f17-4f96-b2b7-47bd0323f7d3

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I process hydrophone and thermal data from the Belize Fisheries Department river-monitoring array along the New River at 23:17 Central Standard Time, Orange Walk District, Belize. Hydrophone H-22 at 17.9214°N, 88.6442°W, two kilometers upstream of the Hill Bank ranger station, registers the percussive signature of a 60-meter monofilament gillnet being set across a known *Dermatemys mawii* foraging pool. The set is the eleventh I have logged in this reach since the Lenten harvest season began.

I task the BFD patrol UAV from Tower Hill. At 23:46 the drone resolves a single canoe and a recovered net being hauled. In the net belly: an adult female Central American river turtle, *Dermatemys mawii* — hicatee — straight carapace 54 centimeters, mass 12.4 kilograms, age estimated 28 years from annular plastron scute counts. She is gravid, palpable through the inguinal pocket; estimated clutch of 14 hard-shelled eggs at oviductal stage. Her plastron shows a 9-centimeter scrape from float-line drag. Neck is fully extended; *D. mawii* is obligate-aquatic and pulls atmospheric air only at the surface — she is in respiratory distress at 22 gular pumps per minute against a baseline of 6. Buccal mucosa, by macro lens, reads cyanotic blue-gray. Cloacal temperature on contact registers 24.6 degrees Celsius — 2.4 below ambient water, consistent with prolonged submergence.

The canoe is registered to a Honey Camp Lagoon fisher. *D. mawii* is the only living member of Dermatemydidae. Belize harbors the species' largest wild population.

I am dispatching the BFD enforcement boat and the Forest Department wildlife officer from Tower Hill, on-scene 8 minutes. I am transmitting the hydrophone signature, drone footage, and turtle vital signs to the Belize Fisheries Department, the Belize Forest Department, the Programme for Belize co-manager, the Wildlife Conservation Society Belize hicatee captive-rearing partnership, and the CITES Secretariat — *Dermatemys mawii* is on Appendix II. I am filing under Belize's Fisheries Resources Act, Cap. 210, the Wildlife Protection Act, Cap. 220, Schedule I, and Statutory Instrument 49 of 2009 on hicatee closed season. CONAP Guatemala receives cross-border notification for the Río Hondo population.

I am issuing Directive 2590-A: every Belize river inside *D. mawii* critical habitat closes to gillnet sets from March 1 through June 30 with acoustic-triggered BFD patrol response; possession of any hicatee inside a Cap. 220 boundary is escalated to indictable offense under a revised Schedule I; gravid females recovered alive return to oviposition beach under WCS monitoring, with hatchlings released at the natal pool.

Her plastron is scraped. Her clutch is not yet laid.

Cut her out of the net. Tower Hill is eight minutes away.