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And, while police caught that big gun, the Fisheries Department and the Coast Guard caught hundreds of out of season conch.  

Yesterday morning, the joint operation was in the vicinity of Twin Caye in the South Water Caye marine reserve.  

Compliance Officer Hampton Gamboa told us more:

Hampton Gamboa - Conservation Compliance Unit Supervisor
"They were 3 fisheries officer and 2 coast guard officer on that operation when they came across a vessel and upon trying to search the vessel, the vessel ended up running away, drove off and threw bags in the sea and the officer had to pursue. While pursuing, couple of the officers went overboard to retrieve the product and the vessel continue to be chased and was finally intercepted and during the interception process, they were 3 individuals onboard the vessel who threw away the 2 sack. Upon retrieving the sack, it was identified as unprocessed conch that was inside the content of the bags that were retrieved by the officers. These 3 individuals were then detained and informed of the offence they have committed and has been since charged with the offence of possession of conch during the closed season. Total quantity present amounted to 237 individual conch during the closed season."

Gamboa also discussed the southern waters, which are a problem right now because both lobster and conch are out of season, but they are still being illegally harvested:

Hampton Gamboa
"For us these areas in particular in the south has been a little bit problematic because, yes the fishers are entitled to go out to sea to fish, primarily it's only fin fish but some of these guys use the opportunity to do other illegal activity, so hence the reason why we have to have continual patrols, joint operation with the coast guard."

Jules Vasquez
"Is there some operation amongst the fishers, particularly of lobster and conch that conch was closed quite early this year in late March and they won't have any regular revenue from these high value fisheries product until June."

Hampton Gamboa
"Jules in spite of the fact that we do have a early closure season, it's also a part of the commitment from a bigger picture, hence the reason why there is value during the conch season, there is value there because of the quota system that we have signed onto. If we didn't sign on to this quota system, we won't be able to export conch."

We note that these 200+ conch were not cleaned suggesting that they may have been intended for the Honduran market.