Abstract

Belize's fishing industry is the fourth largest foreign exchange earner from exported products. The queen conch fishery is third in economic importance. Queen conch fisheries has been studied by Blakesly, 1977 and Gibson et al., 1982. During the months of November and December 1992 a survey was carried to evaluate the conditions of conch populations at Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Tres Cocos near San Pedro Town, Belize.\In this study 2065 organisms were collected and their siphonal lenght were measured. Siphonal lenght measurements fluctuated between 7 and 27cm, with a mean of 14.23 cm at Tres Cocos and 14.59 cm at Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Juvenile queen conch were found to be predominant at both sites and sparce seagrass beds of primarily Thallasia testudinum, Siringodium filiforme and Laurencia Sp. was the habitat type where juvenile queen conch were most abundant. Lenght-frequency data were used to estimate growth parameters using ELEFAN (K 0.42, 0.40; Loo 31.5, 30.5; to - 0.78, - 0.68 at Tres Cocos and Hol Chan Marine Reserve respectively).

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