Queen conch are slow growing; it takes about four years to grow an adult conch, so it is easy to strip out the adult conch population in an area. Ask any conch diver and they will tell you they have to go further and deeper to harvest queen conch. The commercial market for conch has driven the harvest rates beyond sustainable rates. The Turks and Cacos have developed a conch farm, but ultimately that is not the answer. Conch play an important role in the ecosystem and farm conch will not fill that need.
Each country has it own regulations and havest limits of conch. There is usually a minimum shell size or a minimun thickness of lip that determines a legal take. What we can do is follow the regulations and try to purchase conch from fisherman who follow the regulations.
Devi Sharp is a retired wildlife biologist who spent many years exploring the Caribbean with her husband, Hunter on their sailboat Arctic Tern.
Caroline Rogers is a Marine Ecologist with the USGS Caribbean Field Station in St. John, USVI, and has been conducting research and taking photos in the Virgin Islands since 1984. Caroline has two underwater photography books available on Amazon: Â Coral Reef Stars and The Mysterious, Magical Mangroves of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands.
