Profile

Conch Mariculture -
It Could Be Cayman's Future - (Part II)

Glorious and unique,Conch Shells

Mr. Chuck Hesse

Cayman Islands Tourism Overview

(Continued from issue No. 68, Friday 16March)

In October 1985, the Caicos Conch Farm Limitedon Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands, reached a historicmilestone. After years of dedicated research, experimentationand frustration, TWI scientists finally achieved what had eludedall previous conch mariculture attempts.

For this first time anywhere, they keptconch egg masses alive and thriving throughout the free-swimminglarval stage (called veligers) and through the next stage, metamorphosis.Hesse and his staff saw 85,000 of the tiny mollusks survive thecrucial 22-day development stage and grow into bottom dwelling,shell bearing gastropods and kept them healthy afterward.

More Challenges

Merely by its location on a small islandin the southern North Atlantic, the Conch Farm has faced challengesthat were beyond the sheer improbability of cultivating the speciesitself. One, in fact, shared by all Caribbean islands - from tropicalstorms to indifferent residents and flip-flopping political climates.

In 1992, Queen conch was placed on the CITESAppendix II List as a species that could be threatened with extinctionunless restricted. This resulted in a quota being set for harvestingwild conch stocks anywhere in the hemisphere, and this affectedcommercial fisheries in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The Farms products, however, are actuallyCITES approved, because its livestock are grown from farm-bredconch and not wild stocks. Caicos farmed-conch have all requiredpermits for legal export and transshipment through the USA. Ineffect, this means the Conch Farms technology is the only "unlimited"source of legal Queen conch products for the near and long-termfuture.

That future looked bright in 1993, whenHis Royal Highness Prince Philip toured the farm - making a specialtrip as head of the World Wildlife Fund (UK) to see the uniquefacilities of this daring project.

But that international public relationscoup was followed a week later by a devastating fire on 27 March1992, which proved to be arson. It caused $2-million in damage,destroying the facility's new geodesic dome research centre, theater,gift shop and library; temporarily shutting down the pumps andkilling 300,000 juvenile conch.

While rebuilding from that disaster, TheFarm was later plagued by an alliance with new investors - whoseulterior motives almost bankrupted its operations.

The Future Looks Brighter

The Farm struggled through these major setbacksand more tough times and survived. Today Mr. Hesse is optimistic,seeing the results of exploring far away markets winning a growingdemand for his product.

It started at the 1997 San Francisco SeafoodShow, where Mr. Hesse himself donned an apron to offer samplesof the Farms three new conch products which the market literallydevoured in live and raw form. Rather than promoting frozen conchsteaks, the Caicos Conch Farm caused a splash with completelynew seafood delicacies:

Ocean Escargot, six-months old conchlettesabout an inch long; Island Princess, three inch shellfish justover a year old, and Pacific Rim, six-inch conchs about threeyears old. These are now airfreighted live to the distributioncenter in Fort Lauderdale, where they are kept alive in idealsaltwater conditions until shipment to final destination.

Mr. Hesse's idea of marketing tender babyconch in lieu of land snails to gourmet palates dates back to1990, but until the recent opening of the Farms refresh centerand distribution center in Fort Lauderdale, long distance shipmentof live juvenile conchs wasn't feasible. Now they can ship liveproducts anywhere within 36 hours by jet.

Trade Wind Industries seems to have crackedthe lucrative Asian market, legendary for its insatiable appetitefor exotic seafood. In China, live conch is prized as a new delicacy,described as having the crunchy texture of geoduck (giant clams)and sweetness of pink abalone. Chinese buyers "were ecstatic"to learn it can be shipped live from the Caribbean to that marketwhich relishes its seafood platters still wriggling.

Other markets are developing a taste forthis product too. By January 2001, between 6,000 and 12,000 conchwere being shipped each week to Florida's seafood restaurants,both juvenile live conchs and fresh steaks.

The Farms Island Princess product will bea new taste sensation at the prestigious annual Boston SeafoodShow at the end of March 2001. It has been a featured item atthe Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables for the past two years andis a regular entrée at South Beach's most famous restaurants- including Marks Place, Wish, Lowes Gaucho Room and the soon-to-be-openedand already hot - Nobu.

Pan Caribbean Opportunity

From the Farms beginning, Mr. Hesse andfellow pioneers of conch mariculture have been dedicated to achievinga two-fold dream. They have accomplished the first developingcommercially viable conch mariculture technology but the second,eventually replenishing the Caribbean's indigenous conch supply,is still very much a "work in progress."

Trade Winds Industries has always committeda portion of its net income to fund conch conservation in theCaribbean. Like the original goal of Vermont-based Ben & Jerry'sice cream, the company had always planned to re-invest in theregion.

"But first, we need net income,"Mr. Hesse said. "Because of the setbacks and obstacles we'vefaced in the last few years, this hasn't happened - and havingcommercially viable technology does not yet mean being profitable.Creating and supplying the demand for juvenile conch as exoticseafood in markets thousands of miles away may seem out of syncwith the Farms original idealistic goals. But the issue here ispure business, ie, profitability."

Unlike the Government-owned Cayman TurtleFarm, the privately owned Caicos Conch Farm is not a major revenue-earningtourist attraction right now; that's not its main goal. By contrast,it attracted only a few thousand of last year's 110,000 plus stay-overarrivals (throughout the entire archipelago).

There is no mass-market cruise ship trafficat all in Providenciales. In fact, with the exception of a fewsmall liners making special scheduled stops in Grand Turk, thereis no cruise ship tourism anywhere in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Non-traditional and foreign markets offerhope.

"We're pursuing Asian markets becausethey offer two things," Mr. Hesse explained.

"Decision makers recognize the valueand quality of conch as a gourmet seafood product: delicious,high protein seafood that rivals abalone and excites a marketwhich relishes live seafood. Next, the Asian markets are willingto pay top dollars for the exotic: in this case, our live farmedshellfish."

Developing foreign gourmet markets is whatthe Caicos Conch Farm needs financially. Revenue is critical forMr. Hesse and his team to continue their crusade of seeing everyCaribbean country with its own conch farm, to take pressure offalready depleted natural supplies.

Today, only the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos,Jamaica and Honduras have natural populations large enough tobe harvested for commercial export. But, those are being depletedrapidly. Even so, the region seems to think conch will be availableforever, and the Farm's goal of replenishing the Caribbean's naturalstocks still fails to win major support.

"We could provide a critical solutionby providing seed stock to replenish indigenous supplies rapidlydisappearing due to over-fishing or provide private companiesor government with the complete technology to establish individualconch farms in every country," Mr. Hesse said.

"But unfortunately, the Caribbean regiondoes not yet believe that conch mariculture works at all, muchless at a level successful enough to meet local demands and provideexport quantities for overseas markets."

He continued, "call me idealistic,but the Farm is still 100 percent committed to replenishing theCaribbean's conch population. But you can't accomplish this byjust dropping juvenile conch into the sea. The survival rate ofjuvenile conchs in the wild is infinitesimal and random releaseof huge quantities is a waste of conch protein resources. Thesolution is establishing grow out farms in other Caribbean countries,to provide them with a continuous supply of seed conch."

"The Caribbean region needs to recognizethat conch supplies are rapidly disappearing. We can't take thisspecies existence for granted any longer it must be replenished.We have proved now that commercial farming can work. It's up toindividual countries to make the next move. Conch is part of Caribbeanheritage. It is in danger of disappearing not only from the seas,but from the regions cultural vocabulary," Mr. Hesse concluded.

Return