Conch farm hopes to replenish species
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The queen conch population has fallen from millions to an estimated 40,000.
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KEY WEST, Florida (Reuters) -- The first and only U.S. conch farm has opened in the Florida Keys as an aquaculture research facility to replenish Florida's dwindling supply of queen conchs, chewy mollusks prized for their tasty meat.
The facility set up in the self-dubbed "Conch Republic" aims to initially release 4,000 to 5,000 baby conchs annually near Key West.
Rapid depletion of the queen conch prompted a 1975 ban on commercial harvesting of the species from Florida Keys waters. Recreational harvesting was added to the ban in 1986.
In September, international regulators banned imports of queen conch from Haiti, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
Scientists from the Mote Marine Laboratory, based in Sarasota, Florida, and environmentalists gathered Saturday night to open the Key West Conch Baby Farm, a 1,000-square-foot facility next to the Conch Republic Seafood Company restaurant.
Scientists estimate only about 40,000 queen conchs remain near Key West, an island and the southernmost city in the continental United States, compared to millions that existed just a few decades ago.
"Conch is a poster child to what's happening in the ocean," said Dave Lackland, a Mote staff biologist.
At Mote's new facility, baby conchs are harvested in 200- to 300-gallon saltwater aquarium tanks until they reach 2 to 3 inches long, or 300 days old.
Female conchs can lay up to 500,000 eggs, nine times a year, in a jelly-like mass.
The eggs develop and hatch into microscopic larvae, which then settle on the ocean bottom after 30 days.
After finding a proper surface, the conchs evolve into small babies and can produce eggs at age 4.
Conch is widely eaten in dishes like ceviche, fritters and chowder.
Queen conch shells, known for their glistening pink shades, are popular tourist souvenirs and protect the mollusks from predators like lobsters and turtles.
Florida Keys native residents are referred to as "conchs" and Key West's nickname is the Conch Republic.
"We're putting the Conch back into the Republic one at a time," said Mote spokeswoman Nadine Slimak. The facility is scheduled to open to the public in January.
Billed as the world's only other conch farm, the Caicos Conch Farm & Inland Sea Center in the Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, produces about 750,000 conchs annually.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
