The Battle to Save the Queen Conch

On the morning of July 3, 1848, John Gottlieb, aka General Buddhoe, coordinated a gathering of enslaved workers in Frederiksted, on the island of St. Croix, by merely blowing a conch shell. Following the call, a large group of enslaved and free Blacks stormed through the streets of Frederiksted and took control of Fort Frederik. The vociferous crowd demanded that by noon the enslaved be declared free or they would commence in burning down the town. 

Knowing the history of the bloody Haitian Rebellion of 1791, which resulted in many casualties, Governor Peter von Scholten, by 3 pm on that day, declared that all those who were enslaved were to be set free.

The Queen Conch is a marvel, not only for its beauty but as the symbol of the emancipation of slaves in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It has come to represent the most precious of all human rights, the right of freedom. The U.S. Virgin Islands does indeed owe a great deal to the Queen Conch, both culturally and historically. Its value to the people who reside in the Territory is not measurable in dollars and cents, but it is exactly the greedy desire for legal tender that threatens the Queen Conch’s very survival.

The shell of the Queen Conch is a beautiful construction of godly proportions. It is usually a rich milky pink on the inside, and the exterior is spiked and sandy brown. Her meat is a highly sought after delicacy and she produces pearls that have been used as jewelry for centuries. When the Queen is gone, her abandoned shell breathes new life as a horn used in religious ceremonies down through the ages, or as the fabled shell trumpet of the mythological Greek God Triton, or as a signal for slaves to gather in Frederiksted back in 1848.

The Queen Conch is an extremely valuable resource, but is also a finite one. Sadly, this beauty of the sea has been slowly disappearing. Over-harvesting of conch has been devastating to its survival. If humans are truly stewards of the oceans, then they need to foster sustainable conch harvests and allow the oceans to replenish her supply. 

Conches are very different from other sea creatures. They do have eyes, something of a nose, a mouth, and a single foot. The mouth, which is at the end of a tube, has a tongue that’s used for scraping algae off sea grass blades. Her two eyes are on the ends of long stalks, and just in front of each eye is a little antenna sensory receptor. Amazingly, conches are capable of regenerating a lost eye. Conches also create their pink shells using calcium and carbonate ions from seawater. Their shells are extremely tough. They have a single foot they use to lunge or hop along the sea bottom. They are not known to be speedy or even quick, which means they are quite easy for divers and free divers to catch. If you travel along the roads in the Bahamas you will see thousands of them stacked up at harvest areas. There is something of an obsession with finding and taking conches in the Bahamas. The proof being, a picture of a conch rests atop the country’s Coat of Arms.

Farming conch is very difficult and expensive. After going through something of an incubation period, which involves them burying themselves under the sand for a year or so, the shell grows in a spiral, and increases in size for about four years, after which time it reaches its adult size. After this point the conch shell begins to flare outward, creating a thicker and thicker lip. The adult conch will be ready to mate when the lip is about half-inch thick. Females lay 300,000 to 500,000 eggs annually between April and September. Conch can live between 20 to 30 years if not disturbed. 

U.S. government researchers recently concluded that after an extensive review of the species Gigas (Queen Conch) that this large marine snail, known for its showy shell and delectable flesh, was on a path to extinction. Federal officials have taken a long time to consider whether to list the Caribbean species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). After having wrapped up collecting public comments on the proposal a couple of years ago, there appears to be quite a raging controversy in fishing communities in several countries who oppose the move. They are worried that such a listing could end their ability to export conch meat to the United States, which happens to be the largest market. 

“We are not convinced that listing the species under the ESA is justified at this time, or the best option available to protect the species,” said Maren Headley, a fisheries scientist with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, an intergovernmental organization, at a public hearing hosted online by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Headley cited “grave concerns” about the potential impact of listing the species: “Improving fisheries management should be the objective,” she concluded.

The Queen Conch, which lives in seagrass meadows throughout the Caribbean Sea, has been fished for centuries for its meat. The scale of its exploitation has grown exponentially in recent decades. 

“The extraction of conch from the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem has been immense,” said Andrew Kough, a marine biologist at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

The species has few defenses against divers who seek its valuable meat. Some conch stay safe by living in remote or deep waters. Older individuals, which can grow up to 35 centimeters, can become camouflaged over time with algae or coral growing on their shells. 

Because of overexploitation, conch fishing was banned in Florida in 1975. Population declines followed in other countries. Today, they are thin across almost all its range. According to a recent scientific review completed by NOAA, larvae are not dispersing adequately to maintain gene flow between local populations. Many fisheries will likely become unsustainable sometime in the next thirty years. “If that happens, poaching will probably worsen and the species would face a moderate risk of extinction,” NOAA declared. 

In 2018, the U.S. imported $33 million worth of conch meat for fritters, chowder, and other dishes. 

“An ESA listing would send a clear message that this species is in danger,” claims Nick Higgins, a marine biologist at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, a research center in the Bahamas.

But not everyone agrees. “My view of the status is not nearly as dire as the report makes out,” retorts Richard Appeldoom, a fisheries biologist at the University of Puerto Rico.

In a letter to NOAA, Nicole Angeli, Director of Fish and Wildlife Division at the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) wrote: “We suggest further review prior to listing due to potential unnecessary barriers to research, restoration, and sustainable harvest of the species primarily in the U,S. Caribbean, with limited impacts in other countries of the Caribbean, South and Central America that occupy a much larger percentage of the species range,” Ms. Angeli was quoted. “Illegal and unreported fishing is the main problem. However, that’s not happening here in the U.S. Virgin Islands, at least not now.”

The Queen Conch was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with a final rule issued on February 14, 2024, effective March 15, 2024.

The NOAA ruling states: Species currently suffers from low population densities and poor recruitment throughout a vast majority of its rangeland experiences with limited larval dispersal and interrupted population connectivity. NOAA added: The Caribbean region is likely to be impacted by climate change, and those adverse impacts, while not yet fully realized, could have devastating implications for Queen Conch over the next century (2100).

So, blow the Queen Conch shell, loud and clear! Hear its cry for freedom. Hear its cry for the freedom to continue its beautiful life.