Abstract

The fishing of the snail is located in the northeast region of Nicaraguan Caribbean; traditionally the resource has been captured "incidentally" by divers that dedicate themselves to the lobster catch, reason why the statistics of landings are begun to register as of 1997, since before this date the few landings volumes were registered grouped with other species of little interest. The landings of snail (clean meat) have been increased of 17 ton. in 1997 to 113 ton. in 2001, and the exports of 8 to 45 ton for the same years. The volumes of export are governed by quotas established in agreement with CITES, which were defined from 1997 as 20 tons and increased to 45 tons in 2001. The volume of local consumption is not known. Studies do not exist that define the usable potential, however, according to regional experiences and to local biological samplings, it is considered that the resource is subexploded and a minimum length capture (siphonal length) of 200 mm has been suggested. The national fishing administration and private companies differ in their evaluation of the resource and to define a new quota of capture according to the biological.capacity of the resource. The state does not have capacity to control the fishing and the illegal traffic by and towards neighboring countries.

PDF Preview