Fisheries Dept. monitoring for undersized lobster, conch

The Fisheries Department would like to remind restaurant owners, shopkeepers and consumers that even though conch season is open, they are checking for undersized conch and making arrests. Last week the department conducted operations in the Belize Harbor, Belize River, Market Square, Stann Creek, Caye Caulker and San Pedro, Ambergris Caye and searched several restaurants. Two proprietors at San Pedro were taken into custody and Mario Garcia of Ambergris Delight was charged with having forty-three undersized conch. The Fisheries Department says the minimum size for conch is seven inches and the weight, when cleaned, must be at least three ounces. Lobster tails must be at least three inches long and weigh four ounces. Lobster season closed on the fifteenth of February and restaurants will not be allowed to have any lobster, even frozen ones, on their premises until the season reopens on June fourteenth. In a footnote, the Fisheries Department is also asking all fishermen to be on the lookout for one of their skiffs which was stolen from Moho Caye last Thursday night. The twenty-six foot Mexican skiff was white with a green interior and had the name “Elizabeth” painted on the side. It was carrying a sixty horsepower Yamaha engine. Contact the police or the Fisheries Department if you have any information on the skiff.