Environmental groups and fishing interests are still waiting to learn whether the U.S. will declare the popular queen conch a “threatened” species, as it proposed to do more than two years ago.
Following what was described as an in-depth study in 2022, the Fisheries Division of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) concluded that the sea snail population has declined greatly in most of its range due primarily to overfishing.
Conch has been a favorite food source for centuries throughout its range, which NOAA describes as the Florida Keys, the Gulf of Mexico, the waters around Bermuda, and throughout the Caribbean. It has also become a cultural symbol in many of those areas.
While the conch is not considered “endangered,” that is, in imminent danger of extinction, the report concluded that without intervention, the species might be endangered soon, possibly within as little as 30 years.
Hence, NOAA made a formal, public proposal in early September 2022 to categorize the conch as “threatened.” The designation of itself does not impose any restrictions, but it does set in motion a process in which they can be proposed in the future.
Regulations call for public input on any proposal to list a species on either the endangered or the threatened list, and there was considerable comment on the conch proposal, with fishing interests largely opposed. Some feared the listing would lay the groundwork for tightly limiting or even banning U.S. imports of commercially fished conch.
The Virgin Islands Fish and Wildlife Division also responded, asking NOAA to consider that the territory has already implemented strict conch fishing limits that seem to be successful in preventing overfishing.
The NOAA report did acknowledge that its survey determined that conch resources in the Virgin Islands have seen some recovery. Overall, however, it said the survey found overfishing throughout the conch’s range.
The acceptable “exploitation rate” for conch – the percentage of animals that can be taken from the population in a given area for human purposes– is eight percent. “Human purposes” include such things as research and jewelry-making, although clearly, most are for consumption.
The report found that 35 of the 39 jurisdictions it studied in 2022 were exceeding that limit.
Moreover, it found that in many areas, the number of conch needed to sustain the species has slipped below the limit. Given the conch’s reproduction system, researchers say that just to maintain a population, there need to be at least 50 adults per hectare (roughly two and a half acres).
According to the report, 25 of the 39 jurisdictions had populations below 50 adults per hectare. And only 10 jurisdictions had sufficient adults to grow the population (estimated at 100 or more adults per hectare).
NOAA did not conduct an actual count in all jurisdictions but relied on previous surveys.
Numbers for the Virgin Islands varied island to island but averaged to just 44 per hectare. Those were relatively dated figures, coming from a survey conducted from 2008 to 2010.
V.I. waters make up less than one percent of the queen conch’s range.
NOAA is required to consider and respond to public input before making a final determination about a listing, which is supposed to happen no later than a year after a public proposal. In this case, that deadline was five months ago, on Sept. 8, 2023.
It is unclear why the administration has not made a final determination as yet but it may be that staff are still sifting through and drafting responses to the public comments.
That was the educated guess of a key local official, Sennai Habtes, the Fisheries Bureau chief at the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources’ Fish and Wildlife Division.
A NOAA spokesperson told the Source there was no one available to speak on the matter and referred a reporter to the NOAA website for any response, but the site doesn’t contain an update to the extensive information posted in 2022.
Besides overfishing, NOAA blames climate change impacts and a lack of “regulatory mechanics” for the decline of conch.
Environmental groups have been pushing for protections for conch for more than a decade.
In 2012, WildEarth Guardians petitioned the federal government to list the species as endangered or threatened. Following a review then, NOAA concluded neither listing was warranted at that time. But groups appealed the decision, and in 2019, a court ordered a more thorough review, which resulted in the 2022 review and report.
