With the futureof the Cayman's Queen conch and other marine life a key issueright now, maybe it's time to seriously consider conch mariculture.Community
Conch Mariculture - It could be in Cayman's Future!
With the futureof the Cayman's Queen conch and other marine life a key issueright now, maybe it's time to seriously consider conch mariculture.
While we look for ways to protect what'sleft of our conch population, one of the world's foremost authoritieson Strombus gigas, Mr. Chuck Hesse, is successfully farming millionsof the mollusks in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
From his office at the Caicos Conch FarmLtd., on Providenciales, the company's CEO and President, andmariculture pioneer, provided an update on recent developmentson the world's only commercial conch mariculture project. Someof the news sounded truly "un-conch-ventional" whenapplied to this species on the CITES Appendix II list.
"Right now, we're the only people inthe world who know how to grow conch from egg mass, through maturityon a commercial scale and we developed the technology right here.Our current inventory is 3 million queen conch in varying stagesof development and our goal is to produce 1.5 million new conchsannually. That's about half the number harvested for export everyyear from wild stocks on the Caicos Bank, under the quota setby CITES Appendix II," Mr. Hesse explained.
"We started selling 100% farm-raisedconch meat locally in 1989 and exported our first product to Floridain 1990. Now we've expanded our commercial efforts beyond sellingtenderized fresh conch meat. We've taken a new, avant-garde directionsince causing a sensation at the San Francisco Seafood Show in1997.
"The Chinese and Japanese were literallyeating 'Ocean Escargot' alive, our trademarked name for farm raisedyear-old, inch-long conchlettes, a new product. They loved theflavour and texture and it was the hottest item at the show. We actually launched three new live products there: Ocean Escargot,Island Princess and Pacific Rim - juvenile conchs from one tothree years old. All got a tremendous reception from the Californiaand Asian markets", Mr. Hesse explained.This year, the ConchFarm expects to ship its first million live young conch from inventoryto overseas markets on the Pacific coast and beyond to Japan andChina, the potential revenue from these gourmet seafood itemsis much greater. In 1999, they opened a new 2,000 square ft. distributionand refresh centre in Miami Lakes, Florida which makes this allfeasible.
"The other exciting project for thenew millennium is working with a US businessman to start a conchgrow out facility and possible re-seeding project in Florida'sown 'Conch Republic,' Key West, to help 'bring conch back to theFlorida Keys'. It's been illegal to harvest wild conch there since1985," Mr. Hesse said.
"I'd like to mention that we have helddiscussions with private investors and the Government about thepossibility of establishing a similar conch growout facility inthe Cayman Islands. Don't be concerned: all of these activitiesare legal and environmentally correct according to both localconservation laws and CITES Appendix II regulations", Mr.Hesse said.
In the Beginning
Mr. Hesse is President and CEO of TradeWind Industries Ltd., the holding company of the Caicos ConchFarm, which today represents an $8 million investment. For thepast 16 years, Mr. Hesse and his colleagues have patiently andpersistently pursued what many considered a quixotic quest: developinga viable technology for commercial scale conch mariculture. Alongthe way, their relentless pioneering research has provided mostof what is now known about the life cycle of this amazing molluskwhose proper scientific name is Strombus gigas.
Few apart from the Farm's staff comprehendjust how extraordinary this project is, when you consider thecreature's complex life cycle, from egg mass to mature snail sportingthat lustrous pink-lipped shell. It wasn't until the mid-1980'sthat Florida scientists studied this amazing gastropod in anydepth.
In the past 20 years, few saltwater maricultureventures anywhere have become commercially successfully and theyhave involved varieties of salmon, shrimp and bay scallops speciesfar easier to cultivate than Strombus gigas. Although there havebeen other Caribbean conch mariculture projects in Venezuela,Belize, Mexico and Bonaire, none ever advanced close to the commerciallevel achieved in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Today, under carefully controlled conditions,these gastropods are growing, in some cases literally by leapsand bounds, in tanks, trays, saltwater grow-out ponds and eventuallyin subsea pasture covering 60 adjacent acres of seine-fenced turtlegrass flats on the edge of the Caicos Bank. The farm's continuousinventory is now three million animals in various stages of development.As adult mollusks, that's enough low fat, high quality proteinto feed the entire population of this tiny country for years.
The Farm's technology has produced a smallerQueen conch and while the meat yield per mollusk is smaller, itis sweeter, some say "nuttier", more tender and whiterthan its wild cousins. Farm cultivated conch also produce muchmore attractive shells. In addition, their research has provedthat conchs require longer (five and a half years) to reach fullmaturity, not three and a half years reported in existing scientificliterature.
The Caicos Conch Farm's roots reach backto 1976 on Pine Cay, where Mr. Hesse founded PRIDE, the Foundationfor the Protection of Reefs and Islands from Degradation and Exploitation.PRIDE was a non-profit organisation which targeted environmentaleducation, alternative energy use and conch mariculture as itsprimary projects. The conservation movement in the Caribbean wasvery small at the time and saltwater mariculture of any kind wasan alien concept. With perseverance and ingenuity, Mr. Hesse succeededin obtaining grants from US foundations as seed money to pursuehis dream.
During the next few years, Mr. Hesse andother dedicated young marine scientists (including Ms. Megan Daviswho later led the Caribbean Mariculture Association) conductedcritical research which became the grid-work for today's conchmariculture operation.
By 1984, evidence of the declining conchpopulation of the region convinced PRIDE's founders to r
ally investors to form Trade Wind IndustriesLtd. and apply their research to attempting a commercial conchmariculture facility. In March 1984 construction began on thefacilities on five acres of land leased from the government atLeeward Going through on Provo's northeast coast. Turtle grassflats on the edge of the Caicos Bank immediately offshore provideda natural habitat ideal for grazing conch mariculture's laterstage.
In October 1985, the Farm reached a historicmilestone. They nursed conch egg masses throughout the free-swimminglarval stage (called veligers) to metamorphosis. Mr. Hesse andhis staff saw 85,000 survive the crucial 22-day development stageand grow into bottom-dwelling, shell-bearing gastropods and happilykept them healthy afterwards. After years of dedicated research,experimentation and frustration, TWI scientists finally achievedwhat had eluded all previous conch mariculture attempts.
(Next week: A Caribbean Opportunity)