"Analysis of data of the conch population off Jamaica’s coast indicates that the ban on the fishing, sale and export of queen conch (Genus strombus) will be extended well beyond the near one-year timeline announced by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries last Friday. It could take years before the conch stock is replenished to commercially viable levels.

“It is an inescapable biological fact that conch take between four to five years to mature. This means that the conch closure may extend for considerably longer than one year,” marine biologist Dr Karl Aiken told The Gleaner yesterday. “It is not quite bust yet, but bad enough that it had to be closed for a while.”