Officers from the Joint Marine Unit and Bodden Town police station found the men with 421 conch, three lobsters and an unlicensed spear gun about 2.30pm on Monday, 9 January during an operation near East End public beach.
The pair, aged 37 and 41, were arrested on suspicion of possession of an unlicensed spear gun and taking conch in excess of the prescribed limit.
Inspector Richard Harford of Bodden Town police station reminded people that the Marine Conservation Law strictly limits the number of conch that can be taken per day.
“The law is quite clear. A person can take five conch per day, or 10 per boat. The two men arrested yesterday paid no heed whatsoever of the law or of the need to conserve the valuable marine life in the Cayman Islands,” Inspector Harford said.
Conch season runs from 1 November to 30 April. Open season for lobster is 1 December to 28 February.
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That’s a full day’s limit for 85 other people. Pretty nasty piece of work.
Northward bound
Let’s see how far the hand of the law extends….total abuse – no excuse!
Annnnnd. They will get fined 200 dollars. Nothing to see here, move along.
When in actuality they should be fined 500,000 dollars as the sign says, and or a very lengthy stay in jail.
What does one have to do, to get the 500,000 dollar fine, the sign says.
Steal the entire fish population of Cayman, AND poach the captive dolphins, AND kidnap a Caymanian child riding a turtle for good measure.
You know that this is not the first time they have done this. Only the first time being caught.
Make sure you bring some clean underwear on your way to Northward. Contraband conch ? They strip search for less than at the prisons.
I can’t help but not salivate and drool over this article. A plate of creamy conch, white rice, plantain, green banana, and a half of key lime to squeeze on it.
A fitting comment, born.caymanian based on your name there, I truly hope it was in jest. When there are none left for your grandchildren who will you blame? I can guess.
I remember about 30 years ago going out on Captain Marvins boat in the North Sound.
There were about 15 of us and we all went looking for conch.
We each bought 3 or 4 back to the boat. Most were put back in the water, but every family got a cleaned out shell.
I did a similar trip a year ago. The whole boatload of people found about 4 conch between us.