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these iconic Caribbean sea snails are
extremely important to the Bahamas but
they could go extinct within the next
ten years studies show the conch
population in the Bahamas is dropping
significantly conks our sea snails with
hard pink and orange shells their meat
is considered a Bahamian delicacy often
steamed deep-fried or served raw with
citrus juices and fresh vegetables but
overfishing in the Caribbean puts conch
populations at risk and potentially nine
thousand Bahamian fishers out of work
that's about 2% of the country's small
population in 2015 more than 400,000
pounds of conch were exported from the
Bahamas worth roughly 2.3 million
dollars conks requires specific
conditions to reproduce they can only
meet when 50 or more snails in a group
are releasing eggs at once and because
of overfishing conks are struggling to
gather in large enough numbers needed
for mating
this means the hard shell sea animals
may eventually die of old age before
ever reproducing scientists encourage
divers who fish for conks to leave the
snails inside their shells that way
fishers can determine if the conch is
old enough to be legally removed from
the ocean by looking at how thick the
shells flared lip is the thicker the
shells flare lip the older the conch
Congress were at largely populated
species in the Florida Keys until
overfishing and commercial harvesting
calls it's fishery to collapse in 1975
Haiti and Aruba
also have been subject to conch
overfishing so scientists have made
recommendations to better protect the
sea snails they suggest establishing a
size limit for legally harvesting conch
based on a shell lip thickness of 15
millimetres ensuring the snails are
mature enough
they also recommend ending conch exports
from the Bahamas should the Caribbeans
fishermen refuse these changes the study
suggests it may be necessary to close
the conch fishery for at least five
years
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