2020-2021 Lobster Season Closes

If you have the budget, it’s a great idea to treat your Valentine to some lobster this weekend as the 2020-2021 Lobster Season winds down on Sunday at midnight and reopens on June fifteenth. Once the season closes and you are found with lobster in your possession, you will be charged.  But this closure, according to Fisheries Officer Mauro Gongora, is two weeks earlier than other countries in the region. Gongora says that they recognize that if it is amended in line with the rest of the region they may be able to reduce challenges that plagues the sector season after season. Here’s how he explains it.

Mauro Gongora

Mauro Gongora, Fisheries Officer, Belize Fisheries Department

“Another issue that is affecting us is that the lobster fishery closes in Central America at the end of February. There is a window of two weeks when the Belize lobster season closes and when the same lobster season close in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and all the other Central American countries. So, there is the potential – it really occurs that illegal fishing for lobster in Belize is done during this time and it could be legally sold in these countries. So, that is an issue and from a department perspective we are in support of doing the amendments to the legislation so that it is on par with the Central American closed season for lobster. That would, in effect, help us because it can literally help us because it can literally reduce the level of illegal fishing in our waters. In a sense, we would be in compliance with the regional lobster regulations currently in place. The lobster regulations at the regional level states that is closed from the first of March to the end of June. So, if we were to amend our legislation, I think it would be very helpful.”