October 09, 2003
The Conch Crisis
The previous generation of fishermen will tell you that they would go out sculling in a wooden boat without an engine and pick up conch with a hook on a long pole. Or just walk along the shore and find plenty.
Now, fishermen are worried, and rightly so. Their livelihood is at stake. Our fishery and a critical part of our culture are threatened. "They used to say conch would never run out-but that is just how much there used to be.
Once the density of conch in a certain area becomes very low, they do not reproduce. We are approaching this threshold here in the Bahamas, and this is something that we should all be concerned about. Conch populations do not easily recover from low levels.
We need stronger enforcement of our current laws regarding harvesting conch, and we should reassess the amount of conch that we export from The Bahamas.
Posted by admin at October 9, 2003 11:50 PM