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Hampton Gamboa - Fisheries Supervisor, Conservation Compliance Unit
"Officers who were conducting patrols on Lighthouse Reef searching all the mangroves and checking all the vessels over that side found this ice box behind us almost three quarters filled with conch which were being already processed; they were already fillet conch."

"It's amazing that there are approximately 16 sacks of conch that we got out of this ice box and they were all large conch."

Jules Vasquez reporting
The huge icebox box was found on the 28th September - meaning that it was being stockpiled to deliver to the co-op at the start of the season - as if it was freshly caught:

Hampton Gamboa - Fisheries Supervisor, Conservation Compliance Unit
"If they were successful in bringing this amount of conch in which is estimated at just about 1,000 - 1,200 pounds - upon delivery they would get a first payment roughly at about 6 per pound. You are looking at a little bit over $7,000 to be exact in terms of revenue for those fishermen."

"If we had found them with this in their possession then we would have to go through the process of the court and at that time the magistrate will decide. The season is closed and so they will be able to charge them approximately $30 for each one during the closed season. Usually they would carry up the fine to the max which is no more than exceeding $30 per conch and for committing the offence about $500."

"We estimate that about 5,440 individual conchs there. You are looking at well about $167,000 plus roughly - fine and penalties that they would have faced."

This is a prize catch in an operation that's been going on for a month:

Hampton Gamboa - Fisheries Supervisor, Conservation Compliance Unit
"During these operations there were 423 fishermen that were checked for individual license and as well as boat license. Also to give you some figures, there were over 43 sail boats and over 51 skiffs that were search and checked during this operation."

"In terms of offences and fines and penalties; there were 11 individuals that were charged for possession of conch during the closed season. Of these 11, there were 6 persons that were charged for 623 conchs. There were 2 persons who were charged for 299 conchs and another 2 persons for 295 conchs and as recent as yesterday we also found one individual harvesting 40 live conch in shell."

And as conch season starts today, Gamboa also has a warning for the general public:

Hampton Gamboa - Fisheries Supervisor, Conservation Compliance Unit
"We just want to take this opportunity today to remind the community that conch season is open but is also size limitation. We don't want people to be selling you all small conch and you are thinking that you are getting the best quality conch and so on."

"Not only that, you are contributing by you purchasing small conch - you are contributing to the depletion of the actual stock because these are given the opportunity to reproduce at least once in their life cycle, hence the reason why we have a weight limit as well as a size limitation."

"The conch needs to exceed 3 ounces if it is market clean conch and if is fillet conch it has to exceed 2.75 ounces."

"There are a lot of people who will try to come up to you and sell you conch for like $4-$5 per pound. You really want to check the weight of these things because you could just end up in the court for possession of undersized conch whether you know it or unknowingly knowing it or so on."

In court, persons caught with out of season or undersized conchs are charged 30 dollars per conch, regardless of weight.

In the case of the 16 sacks of conch you saw in that story, those are found property since no one was nearby. The Fisheries Department must wait on the magistrate to instruct them what to do with it.