When it comes to her majesty, there are certain things that we, as consumers, extractors and concerned citizens should know. Let’s take this time to learn some interesting facts about our beloved queen.   The queen conch is a large marine mollusc whose scientific name Strombus gigas which means giant spiral shell. Mollusks are soft-bodied animals that may have a hard external shell composed of calcium carbonate, a hard internal shell, or no shell at all. As we should all know, Queen conchs have an external, spiral-shaped shell with a glossy pink or orange interior; which makes it popular for both its great tasting meat and beautiful shell! 

 

The Queen conch thrives in warm shallow waters (not deeper than seventy feet); therefore, it is usually found living and breeding in shallow waters in the sand, sea grass bed and coral reef habitats.  In fact, they usually mate in shallow waters in sandy areas behind the coral reef.  Reproduction occurs through mating since the queen conch have separate sexes and reproduce through internal fertilization. After mating, which occurs April to September, females lay long egg masses with about half a million embryos. Although as in the case of most marine organisms, the older and larger the conch becomes the more eggs it can produce.  It takes about five days for the embryos to leave the eggs and travel to the surface. Larvae then spend about 18-40 days floating and feeding in the "plankton" before settling to the bottom and metamorphosing into the adult form. By this time, they have developed a tiny transparent shell called protoconch with a mouth and a foot.  They spend their days buried in the sand to hide from predators and come out at night to feed on algae. Their main predators at this stage (while their shells are still soft and thin) are hungry crabs, lobsters, sting rays, octopuses and some fishes. It is important to note that few of the embryos reach to the stage of adulthood due to heavy predation during its early stages of life when it is unable to protect itself due to its soft shell or lack of shell. As years go by and the conch grows, its shell gets harder and it adds layers of shell along the edge of the chamber in which the young animal lives.  In case you are wondering if the Queen has eyes; yes it does. Its eyes are concentric circles (two or more circles which have the same center point) of blue, yellow and black on long stalks that it sticks out of its shell; however, it can easily pull in it eyestalks when a predator approaches.

 

It takes about three to five years for the Queen conch to become fully mature and be considered an adult. Within three years, the conch can grow up to two pounds in weight and eight inches in length. The average shell length will increase about three inches per year in its active growing stage. The adult conch us can be identified by its heavy shell which has a flattened flare on one end.  Therefore, the older the conch gets, the thicker its shell will be. A conch can live up to forty years if it is not harvested by its main predator during its adult stage, humans. It is obvious to see that the queen conch is not very fast growing; therefore, it takes quite a bit of time for it to grow and mature. 

 

Belizeans and seafood lovers all over the world enjoy the conch since it is not only delicious but also nutritious especially since it is a very high source in protein. Sea food lovers all over have made wonderful recipes utilizing the conch meat. Bottom line, conch is great tasting and is eaten and enjoyed by many! The concern is though, with the current rate of extraction, will conch even exist in the future?

 

Well, there are a few things in place to ensure that our queen conch is around for many more generations for all of us to enjoy. Firstly, there is the open and closed season for conch; closed season is from July 1^st to September 30th of each year. It is our duty as Belizeans and stewards of the environment to respect the closed season since this gives the conch time to reproduce and grow. Now, is the close season sufficient time for the conch to reproduce and grow in peace is another issue but of course playing our little part in conservation by not extracting conch during the closed season goes a long way and will ensure that our conch stock does not disappear. Secondly, there are also marine protected areas that exist all over the country that manages the area in order to ensure that our conchs are used sustainably/responsibly and ensures that regulations/rules of extraction are adhered to.  In Toledo, there is the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, co-managed by TIDE and Fisheries Department that protect our conch! We, as the users of the resource, should know how important they are and respect the regulations.  Lastly, there are fisheries regulations concerning the extraction of conch that should be adhered to and they are specifically in regards to fisherfolk who extract conch on a regular basis. Such regulations are: the shell length of the conch should be greater than seven inches, market clean weight should be more than three ounces, fillet weight should be more than 2.75 ounces and no fishermen should have in his possession diced conch meat.

 

So, conch lovers, it is obvious that conch is not an infinite resource; it has a definite end to it. Of course, the end of it can be caused by over fishing/extraction due to high demand. However, as long as we utilize this resource responsibly and follow the regulations that protect them, the conch will live on for years to come and will be eaten by the future generations.

 

For more information, See http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/invertebrates/queenconch.htm