March 2, 2017 – Lobster fishing is simultaneously suspended in the countries from the System for Central American Integration (SICA) from March 1st to June 30th: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Dominican Republic. In Belize, the closed season runs from February 15th to June 15th. During this period the Caribbean Spiny Lobster cannot be caught or commercialized.
The objective is protect this resource during the major spawning period. This regional ban responds to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Integration Policy and the ordinance OSP-02-09 for the “Regional Regulation of Caribbean Lobster Fishing (Panulirus argus)”, which implementation since 2010 demonstrates improvements in fish stocks and incomes coming from the trade of this living resource.
