CRC’s Jonathan Triminio featured in Forbes

It’s not everyday someone from Belize gets featured in Forbes Magazine and for research biologist, Jonathan Triminio, this is not just a great opportunity highlight the wonders of his hometown Orange Walk. It’s a chance to underscore the importance of one of the district’s most important waterways, the New River. Triminio works with the Crocodile Research Coalition and their task to understand the apex predator in this often-troublesome environment. We spoke to him via phone today about the Forbes article. 

Jonathan Triminio, Research Biologist, Crocodile Research Coalition: “It came in as a surprise for me the opportunity to write a short article for Forbes. My mentor forwarded me the e-mail and she had me write down something so I could be featured and you know it was something big for me you know I never thought that I would be in featured by Forbes. I did what they asked me to do, the questions I answered them and I answered what important projects I’m involved in and that gave the highlight of the New River project so that because it’s my project as well so that was something very important not only for me but for my community in Orange Walk as well so I’m very delighted about that.” 

The Coalition says that Monitoring crocodile populations is an essential component of the reptiles’ conservation and management. Besides the routine population count surveys, the CRC conducts capture surveys to assess the status of individual crocodiles over time. The data collected will assist in making informed decisions for their continued survival. We asked Triminio about the project. 

Jonathan Triminio, Research Biologist, Crocodile Research Coalition: “The New River is a very important river. We have that and then the other rivers like the Rio Hondo watershed but something that is key in terms of the New River is that it’s a very slow flowing river and it is bound by sugar cane fields all the way from the mid waters up to the mouth actually so we have the slow flowing river there is no mouth it’s an Orange Walk and Corozal so it’s very slow and you know what gives it that flow is precipitation so it’s very vulnerable to climate change as well so you have a slow flowing river and you don’t have much rains as we used to get back then so whatever runoff or pollution contaminant that is being washed into the river stays there for longer than we need it to be. So when it comes to the crocodiles, crocodiles are apex predators they have very strong immune systems and we are looking at them because in 2019 these crocodiles were dying along with turtles, birds but crocodiles you know we expected these crocodiles to be the last to be dying we always see fish kills and that was something that it’s yearly because of the dry season and the pollution but then the crocodiles started dying and that was causing concern that you know we never see crocodiles dying so that is something that has a lot to say about the conditions of the river and the condition of the pollution and how it is worsening.”