Abstract

The Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) was one of the most important fisheries and most traditional in Quintana Roo. The only authorized site for capture in the Mexican Caribbean was The Reserve of Banco Chinchorro, however in 2012 the closure of this resource for five years was decreed. In order to follow up changes in the Queen Conch population (densities and average sizes) during the closure period, a monitoring program was initiated selecting four sites inside the Reserve and outside No Take Zones (NTZ), involving participation of the fishing cooperatives. These sites were frequent-ed by legal fishermen and poachers before the closure; and one of them was used for extraction of conch for repopulation of the NTZ during sampling. During the first evaluation (six months after the ban) densities ranged from 0.045 to 0.160 ind/m2 (X ± SD = 0.083 ± 0.05 ind/m2) while at the second assessment (one year ban) densities increased near double from 0.127 to 0.270 m2 (X ± SD = 0.173 ± 0.03 ind/m2). Thanks to the data obtained in the last monitoring, it was posible to demostrate an event of poaching in two of the sites. No effect was observed in the extraction site for the NTZ. These first results showed that the ban and enforcement actions of the Reserve and Fishermen are working to recover the population. To keep this monitoring with the participation of fishermen allow direct users to see the results of protection and management, and simultaneously spread the effort of fishermen contribution in the conservation of its resources.

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