Their meat is highly prized and is used in a wide variety of dishes – from stews to chowder to salads and fritters. Conch as FoodĬonch have a rich and storied history as a key part of Caribbean, Mediterranean, and South east Asian food culture. Conch are still numerous in several parts of the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos. Most of the conch harvested and sold on the international market is imported into the United States today. Juveniles inhabit shallower inshore seagrass meadows, while adults are typically found in deeper water. As they consume seagrass and algae, their range is limited to the availability of edible plant life. They’re mostly found in semi-shallow water between 1 and 100 feet deep. Their natural range extends from Bermuda to the Florida coast, down throughout the Gulf of Mexico, and as far south as the Northeast regions of Brazil. It’s now illegal to harvest queen conch in any Florida waters. The most well-known species – the queen conch – were once numerous throughout the Caribbean, but were overexploited in certain areas, including the Florida Keys. Habitat and RangeĬonch live in tropical waters all over the globe, and are particularly numerous throughout the Caribbean. Its shell will continue to grow in thickness as it ages, and adult conch can reach 30 years of age. The conch’s shell expands as it grows, until it reaches about 4 years old – where it reaches its mature size. They then emerge and begin feeding on plankton and other plant matter. Juveniles stay hidden for about a year, until they’re about 2 inches long. They reproduce year-round, with females laying hundreds of thousands of eggs that drift in the current for days until they sink to the sea floor and bury under the sand until they hatch. While they may look somewhat sedentary, they actually wander for miles in search of food and mating opportunities. As juveniles, they mostly eat algae and plankton, but as they mature they develop a long snout that allows them to target more varied vegetation. BehaviorĬonch are herbivores that mostly eat sea grass, algae, and other vegetation. Other species commonly referred to as conch are the horse conch, melon conch, and crown conch. True conchs are in the Strombidae family, with the Queen conch ( Aliger gigas) being the most widely known member. Many species have brightly colored shells and similar appearance to ‘true conchs’. While many people think of conch as being a single species, there are actually over 60 different species referred to as ‘conchs’. The shells become thicker as they mature – and are often used to make jewelry, tools, musical instruments, or even as a cement hardener. They generate their tough calcium carbonate shells from calcium salts in the seawater and they continue to grow as they mature. They also have two eyes at the end of long stalks – which they can actually regenerate if their lost or damaged. In addition to a foot, conch also have a long tube-shaped mouth with a tongue for scraping algae off of sea grass. They’re certainly not quick – which makes them susceptible to divers, as well as other predators like sharks, octopus, crabs, sea turtles, and rays. They’re also surprising good climbers, and can crawl all over reefs and other structure. While they might not look very mobile, they have a long foot that allows them to hop or leap along the bottom. Queen conch shells typically range from 6 to 12 inches long, with some rare ones being significantly longer. Conch are mollusks – actually giant marine snails – with medium to large sized shells used as protection and defense against predators.
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