Conch in Abundance

When the lobster season used to close on February 15, the fishermen in San Pedro relied on conch for their living. Conch flourished along the shallow waters of Ambergris Caye and along the grassy patches along the reef. It was customary for fishermen to swim along dragging their dories and fill her up in an hour or so.  Then the tedious job commenced-that of cleaning the conch into a fine white fillet product.  It must have taken the guys in this flashback some three hours to clean this one hundred pound sack of conch. If you don’t believe us then ask Mr. Geraldo Badillo, Perfecto Rivero, Alonzo Badillo and Eliezer Rivero. And you know what?  They only fetched about 50 cents a pound when lobster was earning them 8 dollars per pound.  But nonetheless it was a respectable job for a decent living.