Queen Conch Farming Still Cannot Replace Wild Harvest After 40 Years
A study in Oryx concludes that queen conch aquaculture cannot replace wild harvest or restore declining Caribbean populations, even after more than four decades of commercial attempts. Hatchery-released juveniles show low survival to reproductive age. The researchers found current methods too costly and impractical to offset fishery extractions. An age-based mortality model revealed the scale of facilities and costs needed to partially offset harvest in a typical Caribbean fishery would not be commercially or ecologically feasible. Protecting natural breeding aggregations emerged as the most effective conservation strategy for the overexploited species. Queen conch aquaculture remains useful for scientific inquiry, community engagement, and education, but not for stock enhancement or population restoration without more practical and cost-efficient approaches.
The finding shows that protecting wild breeding sites delivers better conservation outcomes than hatchery programs for threatened marine species facing commercial harvest pressure.
Source: cambridge.org.
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