The Tribune

THE queen conch - as defined in WildEarth’s petition to the US government:

The queen conch is a large gastropod mollusk characterised by a hard external spiral-shaped shell with blunt spikes.

The shell has a glossy pink or orange interior and a flared aperture. Once conch become covered with algae and debris, the exterior of the shell often looks gray. Adults typically reach full size between 3-5 years of age and can grow up to 12 inches (30.4cm) in shell length and weigh up to 5 pounds (2.3 kg).

Beneath the hard exterior shell is a soft body composed of a single foot, a tube-like mouth called a proboscis used for grazing, and two eyes at the end of protruding stalks. There is a hardened tip, or operculum, at the end of the conch’s foot used to move the animal forward in a short hopping motion called the ‘strombid leap’.

Although there are six species of Strombus in the Caribbean, the queen conch is the largest and is easily distinguished based not only on its size, but its deep pink aperture.

‘Strombus giga’ is known by the common names ‘queen conch’ and ‘pink conch’.

Queen conch are found throughout the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico in the territorial waters of at least 36 countries and dependent territories.

The conch’s range extends north to Bermuda and Florida and south to Brazil.

Queen conch actively select their habitat, are found in clean waters and generally prefer sandy or rubble sea floors with seagrass beds. Individuals are also sometimes found in rocky habitats or coral reefs. Conch are primarily found in depths between 10-30 metres, where there is optimum light availability for seagrass and algae growth, though they have been found at depths of up to 100 metres.

Queen conch are found primarily in seagrass beds, which are highly productive ecosystems that provide food, shelter, and nursery grounds to myriad fish and invertebrate species.

Although queen conch have been harvested by local populations for centuries, the rise of a large commercial fishery in the 1970s led to overexploitation.

Prior to this time, conch meat was used as subsistence food and conch shells were used for jewellery and decoration.

Now, queen conch are harvested to meet growing international demand for conch meat, as well as demand from increased Caribbean tourism.

The queen conch fishery has become the second most important benthic fishery in the Caribbean, after spiny lobster.

Between the 1950s and 1970s, queen conch landings (that is the weight of queen conch catch brought ashore) were stable and averaged 2,200 tons annually.

However, harvest intensified in an effort to keep pace with the growing local and international demand for conch meat.

There were a number of fishery closures in the 1980s after widespread recognition that conch populations were being depleted as a result of overfishing.

But these measures were insufficient and harvest continued to grow in the 1990s, peaking between 6,500 and 7,300 tonnes. Harvest has fallen since this peak, averaging 5,500 tons in 1999, 4,500 tons in 2000 and 3,100 tons in 2001.

Exports of queen conch meat tripled between 1994 and 2001.

The overall status of the queen conch resources in the Caribbean ranges from areas with that were severely over-exploited in the past and show little signs of recovery (Bermuda, Florida, Mexico, Saba Bank, Los Roques in Venezuela), to stocks that appear heavily exploited and show signs of depletion and potential recruitment failure (Belize, Dominican Republic, Haiti) and to a few areas where the overall populations may still be considered stable although that local stock depletions and populations declines have started to occur (Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas).