Bahamian Conch [UPSC Notes]

Overfishing is threatening the survival of the Bahamian conch which won’t be commercially viable in 6 years. In recent years, the mollusk conch has become famous as a part of Bahamian seafood. A 2011 survey by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that the density of adult conch had declined by nearly 91% on the islands’ shelves over 20 years. In this article, you can learn more about the Bahamian conch and its significance for the island. This topic is relevant for the IAS exam environment and ecology segment.

Bahamian Conch

Image source: repeatingislands.com

Conch is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. A conch is a sea snail in the phylum Mollusca. Conch is indigenous to the Bahamas and is considered the national food there. The meat of conch is eaten in raw or cooked form.

• It is a pillar of the Bahamian food security, economy, and tourism industry.
• The Bahamas is home to 9,000 conch fishers (2% of the total population). 

Causes of Reduction in Conch Population

According to scientists and international conservationists, the conch population is decreasing due to overfishing.

• Poaching is also a cause of the decline in conch on Cay Sal Bank, an underwater habitat between Cuba, Florida, and the Bahamas.
• The high demand for conch in the international market has made it difficult to reproduce fast enough to sustain the population.
• Impact of global warming and climate change on conch:
  • The warming climate is also a major factor in the conch population decline, as it has brought unpredictable weather that disrupts and damages conch fishing grounds and habitats. The conchs gather in large groups to feed and breed on seagrass beds, some of which have been severely damaged by storms such as Hurricane Maria in 2017. 
  • The growing acidification of the warming ocean is also a threat to conchs because it can cause their shells to deteriorate. The problem is linked to climate change.
  • Warming of the seas also interfered with the conch’s migration patterns. The conch 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. However, increasing water temperature due to climate change is likely to alter the timing and duration of the queen conch reproductive season. 
  • Conchs take three to four years to reach reproductive age, and they’re very sensitive to water quality, hence they fail to reproduce if conditions are not ideal.
• Impact of overfishing
  • According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than a third of the world’s fish stocks are overfished, and the rate of unsustainable fishing is rising. It has wiped out abundant marine species. 
  • Overfishing poses a threat to traditional food habits and local employment. Similarly, it jeopardizes nutrition security in people’s diets in poor countries by reducing the availability of protein and iron.
  • There are some more illustrations of overfishing’s negative impacts, e.g. in Senegal, where overfishing has taken away white grouper fish, which was the basis for the national dish of thieboudienne, and the Philippines, where overfishing has depleted small fish like sardines that are used in the kinilaw dish of the country.

Conch Conservation Measures: 

• There is an urgent need to stop poaching, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. 
• There is a need for stricter rules about minimal harvesting size, to reduce fishing pressure and let conchs reproduce.
• The government must pursue 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.
• The U.S. is considering listing conch under the Endangered Species Act, which could halt imports of it into the country.
• The amount of conch that is exported should be reduced, as international demand is a big driver of fishing pressure.
• Aquaculture of conch should be promoted, so that the need for the wild conch harvest is reduced.
• The areas of the ocean where baby conchs grow should be protected.

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