Abstract

In Colombia, commercial extraction of Queen conch is done at Peninsula de la Guajira and Departamento Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, region which has reported the greatest numbers of captures. In recent years, interest upon this fishery has grown, and several management strategies have been implemented, such as: catch quotas, protected areas, closed seasons, and minimum catch weight. This paper presents the results obtained from the fishery monitoring between 2000 and 2002, done by the Secretaría de Agricultura y Pesca of the Departamento Archipiélago. In the Archipiélago, the fishery is done at artisanal and industrial scales, depending upon the type of boat used; however,the extraction method is similar in both scales, manual recollection by skin diving. Industrial activity has its action range mainly at Banco Serrana, and exceptionally at Bancos Serranilla and Roncador. Artisanal fishery has lost importance and its captures are generally done at Bajo Quitasueño, Providencia island and Cayo Bolívar. Catch ranges around 100 Tons per year, represented in greatest proportion by the industrial fishery, exerted by 10 - 12 boats, mainly foreigners.\The highest catches are obtained at Cayo Serrana, in coincidence with higher resource densities in this platform, when compared with the other sites. Catch effort has been practically constant, and it is highly influenced by resource abundance and the established ordering. The catch per unity of effort is not significantly different between fishing areas. Besides this, catch volume behavior for the last 30 years is analyzed, observing a strong tendency to the fishery collapse.

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