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Lobster Lust Leads to Lobster Bust
posted (August 18, 2010)
Lobster season is in full swing and those who can afford it can freely feast on the highly coveted crustacean. But some unscrupulous fisherfolk take advantage of the open season and use it to declare open season on undersized lobster.

The fisheries department got wind of a major haul of just that which was ready for sale ata local market. They called in the police and organized a bust. Monica Bodden found out what they recovered.

Monica Bodden, Reporting
A joint operation between the Fisheries Department and the police force resulted in one of the largest busts of illegal lobster for this year. According to Fisheries Officials the early morning general sweep of the city led them to Vernon Street Fish Market where they found over eleven hundred undersized lobster tails and out of season conch.

George Myvette - Senior Fisheries Officer
"We intercepted 2 illegal product situation; we arrested a fisherman with about 84 undersized lobsters and 11 conch. This is a fisherman from a Banak Street address in Belize City. The second operation focussed on a store house, a warehouse that had in illegal products; we brought in about 18 coolers, they were not all with product but some of them had product. At the storehouse we actually found 557 undersized lobsters and about 564 out of season conch. As you may be aware this is the closed season for conch. It runs from June 30 to September 30. The conch were of a legal size but they were out of season, so it's an illegal product. We did not take anybody into custody, the investigation continues, we are waiting for somebody to claim these items."

And whoever claims those items will be looking at some serious penalties.

George Myvette - Senior Fisheries Officer
"There are 2 schedules really; what we call the conviction fee goes up to about $500.00 the mandatory minimum in terms of the penalty is $20 per piece, so for each illegal lobster, of each illegal conch there is a mandatory minimum of $20. The magistrate or Judge may take it up to $30 as a maximum, but there is a mandatory minimum. When we add it all up its over 1100 pieces of illegal product and this adds up to over $22,000.00."

Myvette says this is one of the largest busts of illegal lobster so far for this year.

George Myvette - Senior Fisheries Officer
"It's a major bust as far as we are concerned; it's actually the largest bust of lobster this year. We have done some significant take of illegal conch but this is definitely the largest take of illegal lobsters."

Searches at locations where seafood is consumed or traded are conducted regularly by the Fisheries Department.

George Myvette - Senior Fisheries Officer
"On a given man month we would put in between 3,000 - 4,000 man hours on a given man month and this of course relates to the entire territory, this is patrols at sea, this is also on land patrol. As you would appreciate, our guys, the fisheries officers would be seen at the markets, they would be seen at check points as well as in restaurants and other places where seafood is consumed or traded."

And what happens to these 1,100 lobster tails and conch if no one owns up to them?

George Myvette - Senior Fisheries Officer
"Procedurally we would keep these for a time as the investigation continues to see who might be culpable in this situation. If the investigation does not yield anything conclusive in terms of who might be responsible then we would dispose of the products and we have a system in place where these products would normally be donated to worthy causes this would include the Sister Cecilia Home, these would include children's home as well as the feeding programs in a number of the primary schools."

The law states that lobster caught in season must have tails that weight a minimum of 4 ounces or for the full lobster, they must have a carapace length of three inches. The carapace is the upper section of the shell that connects to the tail.

Lobster season closes August 30th.

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