A joint operation was conducted early this morning between the Belize Fisheries Department and the Audubon Society -targeting closed season operations. During this morning's operation, officers came upon an icebox that was tucked away in some mangroves. Inside the icebox was about four hundred and sixty five pounds of undersized conch valuing close to five thousand dollars. We found out more fromHampton Gamboa - Conservation Compliance Unit Supervisor.
Hampton Gamboa - Conservation Compliance Unit Supervisor
"We have a joint operation that was conducted early this morning between Belize Fisheries Department and The Belize Audubon Society targeting close season operation. The area which we were targeting is the Northern 2 Caye. That's where the new proposed development is supposed to happen. We have some fishers that we've been monitoring who are going out in the closed season harvesting of conch during the closed season. Basically this operation was geared towards seeing if they are still harvesting or what's the situation."
"Fortunately for us, we came up on an ice box. 3 of our officers departed here this morning, went in the said vicinity and at about 12 this afternoon when they were able to get cell phone contact with us they told us what they have found sometime after 10 this morning."
"We tried to weigh everything, but we put it as an estimate of 450-465 pounds of conchs."
Reporter
"What would that cost?"
Hampton Gamboa - Conservation Compliance Unit Supervisor
"Right now street value-wise closed season conchs are going for like $10 per pound. So you are looking like close to $5,000. Conch season in Belize closed from July 1st to September 30th. Which basically means that we that it reopens on the 1st of October. But also due to the quota system that we have for the conch in Belize, whenever that quota is realize, that is set at the beginning of the season, then the season is closed. This year it was closed earlier. It was closed from the 1st of May, because the quota was realize from late April."
Monica Bodden
"Talk to us about the penalty."
Hampton Gamboa
"What has happened over the weekend we had found two individual with 20 and 21 respectively. Just this morning in the court, they were charged $500 for committing the offence of possession of conch during the closed season and the magistrate charged them about $25 per individual. Here we are looking at if we have estimated 450 pounds thereabout, from an individual perspective, it means that it's about 4-5 conchs per pound. If you multiple 450 by 5, that is the around of conch that are here that an individual would have been charged with. This ice box according to the officers who were in charge of this operation, they found it inside the mangrove well tucked inside of the canopy of the mangrove at about 50 yards inside the seashore and the island - inside the mangrove."
The conch season reopens on the first of October. During the closed season, street value for a pound of conch is roughly about 10 to 12 dollars.
Email
Print