Conch's potential demise reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods. Such losses are among the starkest examples of how overfishing has changed people's lives - how they work, what they eat, how they define themselves.
overfishing has wiped out
While conch can be pricey in the U.S. and elsewhere, it’s so ubiquitous in the Bahamas that finding a filling meal of conch for less than $10 is not difficult. That is less than the price of many meats on the island, and conch is also found for sale at most grocery stores for eating at home.
Even Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, established in the 1950s as the first marine protected area in the Bahamas, is not immune to the loss of conch because fishing pressure that occurs outside of it limits the number of young conch moving into the park, the Food and Agriculture Organization found.stated that queen conch “shows a negative trend over time and the decrease can largely be attributed to overfishing.
Poachers “have been operating under the assumption that they won’t be caught,” Kough said. ”Enforcement is extremely challenging out there." And the warming of the seas has also interfered with conch's migration patterns. The shellfish move, slowly, with the use of a single foot, to deeper water in the winter, and return to shallower waters in summer to spawn.
The loss of Florida conch is one factor that has led to the U.S. becoming the world's biggest importer of conch meat, and that has in turn put pressure on Bahamian fishers to harvest more. Since the Florida ban, the Bahamian harvest increased from about 4 million pounds in the mid-1970s to more than 8 million pounds in the mid-2010s.
The government has also pursued more aggressive enforcement of existing laws. And the Bahamas National Trust is working to equip fishers with tools to help them physically measure conchs to ensure they're big enough to harvest. One new rule on the table is a change in how the lip of the conch's shell is measured. Current rules say the conch must have a well-formed flaring lip to be considered an adult. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the conch is mature, and a more effective law would provide more specific guidance about how thick the lip must be, conservationists said.
“It is a source of protein in the Bahamian diet,” Beneby said. “People eat conch all the time, they love it, it’s a delicacy, it’s part of our culture. But it’s also a protein source.”Many fishers of conch, such as Davis, acknowledge that there are less conch than there used to be. But there is also much opposition to the possibility of new restrictions on the fishery. Even the possibility of a closed season draws ire.
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