And, finally from Wade, we asked her about this year's conch quota. The season opened on October first and we wondered how the quote is being managed. Last year, fishers fulled up the quota from early in the year, but Fisheries still let the season stay open until the end of April.
Wade says Belize has an abundant and well-managed resource:...
Beverly Wade - Fisheries Administrator
"It's been an excellent start to the conch season this year. The Fisheries Department applies an adaptive management approach to its conch fishery where it monitors the production through the open season and it looks at certain indicators. The realization of the conch quota obviously is one of the indicators that we look at clearly, but there are other indicators that we look at to ensure that the conch is performing the way that we expect it to perform."
"And based on that performance, we meet with the industry and then we decide, how, we would proceed in the rest of the open season, really."
"And so, I can't say weather we will have a shorter season, or I cannot say if the season will go until the end of the period, but one thing I can say is that conch is vigilantly monitored by the fisheries department and its partners, and those indicators are very much examine periodically and it determines how we're going to continue in that open season. But, I will say that we're fortunate in Belize, and my office is very much comforted from the fact that we had an excellent season last year, it looks like we're going to have a good season this year. And we have to do our darndest to ensure that we continue to have such a viable fishery."
The 2019 -2020 Queen Conch season is set to close on June 30, 2020 - but it may close earlier if the quota is again met by very early in 2020.
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