NATURAL STOCK DECLINES AND AQUACULTURE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

No visit to Key West, Florida - capitol of the Conch Republic - would be complete without savoring a plate of conch fritters or a bowl of conch chowder from one of the local dining establishments.

But for more than 25 years, the delicious conch consumed in Key West - and everywhere else in the US - has had to be imported from neighboring Bahamas and various Caribbean countries. That's because the Florida commercial and sport conch fisheries had completely collapsed by the mid 1970s, primarily due to overharvest. Commercial harvest of queen conch in the Keys was banned in 1975, and a ban on all commercial and recreational harvest of the species was enacted in 1986.

The queen conch (Strombus gigas) is a large marine gastropod mollusc native to the shallow seagrass and near-reef habitats of Florida, the Bahamas, the Caribbean Islands, Bermuda and the coast of Central and South America. Although it has been the basis of local subsistence fisheries for centuries, queen conch populations are in decline throughout their range - unable to keep pace with growing pressure of commercial harvest. The animal is slow to mature, taking three years and more to grow to harvest size in the wild. Add to that the development of improved diving equipment, and some of the causes underlying the collapse of the US conch fishery become clear.

Though still showing signs of overharvest, queen conch populations in the Bahamas and some Caribbean countries are in somewhat better shape, partly due to restrictions which prohibit the use of scuba gear by conch fishermen. This allows the survival of small, deepwater "refuge" populations even as shallow conspecifics are harvested en masse - ensuring at least some reproduction to replenish the regional stocks. Nonetheless, continued strong export demand and the widespread adoption of freezer storage and refrigerated transport in the 1970s have contributed to the decline of queen conch populations throughout their natural range.

The inevitable decline in wild queen conch stocks was foreseen by biologists, and as far back as the 1970s, individuals from the aquaculture industry began exploring captive culture strategies to meet increased product demand and ease pressure on overburdened wild populations. The first attempts at commercial conch culture were carried out at the Caicos Conch Farm, established in 1984 in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The farm is still in operation; in addition to pursuing commercial viability of conch production for human consumption, the farm hopes to begin a program to release hatchery-produced juveniles to the wild to augment dwindling local populations.

Today, Caicos Conch Farm has 3 million queen conch at various developmental stages in it's inventory. The farm's goal is to produce 1.5 million conch per year to add to their inventory. Each week, the farm prepares 1,000-2,000 lbs of live product to be shipped to specialty "white table restaurant" markets in Florida. Several restaurants on Providenciales (the island on which Caicos Conch Farm is located, called "Provo" by the island's residents) also feature farm-raised conch on their menu.

Conch aquaculture research and public education is also underway in the Aquaculture Division of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, at a university research facility in Merida, Mexico, and at three facilities in the Florida Keys.

The Florida Straits Conch Company opened in Key West in 1999. It features a restaurant highlighting dishes prepared using farmed-raised conch. Also on site is the Conch Farm Educational and Research Foundation - a museum complex housing exhibits intended to inform visitors of the conch's history in the Keys. The museum includes a mini-conch farm demonstrating strategies for raising the animal from egg to adult.

A stock rehabilitation hatchery operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission began operating in 1991 at the Keys Marine Laboratory on Long Key, Florida. The hatchery is run by Bob Glazer of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Marine Research Institute. The rehabilitation hatchery is the facility that provided Megan Davis' Harbor Branch conch project with the stocks that include the first queen conch to successfully spawn and lay egg masses in captivity. These brood animals were initially collected as egg masses from Florida Bay but have grown to maturity in captivity, first at the Long Key research facility and then at Harbor Branch.

The Long Key rehabilitation hatchery is primarily concerned with elucidating the most effective strategies for captive-rearing queen conch and releasing them to the wild. They have engaged in studies aimed at determining the optimum release size, release season, and the best lunar phase (i.e., full moon or new moon) under which to release animals.

The Keys Marine Conservancy, on Plantation Key, is a recently started non profit organization actively seeking support to develop an education and conservation facility to restock overfished or otherwise diminished native species in the Florida Keys, including queen conch, long-spined sea urchins, spiny lobsters, and various species of corals and sponges.

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Cultured Conch Lifecycle - Quicktime 4 format - (1.0Mb) (exerpted from The Conch's Life Story)