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A wild conch sits among sea grass in the bahamas, the slug inside barely visible through the opening in its iconic large shell.
Research Biologist Andy Kough holds two queen conch while diving; as the conch on the right lays eggs.

Shedd Research Biologist Andy Kough, Ph.D., has been studying queen conch since 2015 using field surveys, biophysical modeling (creating mathematical predictions of how organisms will respond to their environment) and novel tracking technologies to understand the ecology of conch. These data inform conservation and management strategies that help protect conch and their habitats for future generations.

An Important Herbivore Threatened by Overharvest

Strength in numbers benefits conch, which gather in large groups called aggregations for defense when young, and to better find mates when mature. Historically, such groups of queen conch were a common sight in seagrass and backreef habitats across the Caribbean and Florida. Large numbers of conch served an important ecological role by controlling algae growth and being a key prey species for many predators including spiny lobster, rays, sharks and loggerhead sea turtles.

But conch aggregations are appealing targets for fishing. Overharvest, coupled with habitat loss and degradation, have resulted in a decline of queen conch, and fewer aggregations are found today. As a result, there is decreased reproduction because populations are fragmented, resulting in fewer conch that are more spread out and can’t find each other to mate.

 A conch moves along the sea floor, leaving a trail in the sand.

Surveys: Finding Remaining Populations

Much is left to discover about how these challenges have truly impacted queen conch, so Shedd has been searching for and documenting queen conch populations. Our research team has deployed Shedd's research vessel, RV Coral Reef IIacross The Bahamas and in Florida to survey queen conch and see how the population changes through time. Kough and teams freedive and SCUBA dive to describe where conch are found, or not found, across thousands of kilometers of seafloor.

The teams also measure the size and thickness of conch shells. Conch grow the same shell throughout their life, and while the shell stops growing larger near maturity, it grows thicker as they age – giving scientists an easy way of estimating age.

Shedd data on abundance, size and age have informed fishery policies in The Bahamas and have set a modern benchmark for the population status.

A queen conch's eyes peek out of the bottom of its shell.
A diver holds a conch in one hand and a measuring device in the other.

Marine Protected Areas: Helping Populations Flourish

Like most marine species, queen conch begin their lives as miniscule babies, called larvae, that disperse within ocean currents. At about a month old, and sometimes hundreds of kilometers from where they hatched, conch end their larval journey and settle into shallow nursery habitats. Here the snails begin building the familiar spiked-and-spiraled shell and leading a much less mobile life.

No-take reserves, or Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), are a widely advocated and adopted tool for marine conservation that limit or prohibit fishing within certain boundaries. A MPA for queen conch can protect adult breeding aggregations, which replenish other areas because larvae drift at sea. Ocean currents flow in predictable patterns and Kough uses numerical models to estimate where larvae come from and go to.

Data on how different areas are connected through larval transport is essential for planning MPAs and for understanding how long the recovery of overharvested populations may take.

“Marine Protected Areas are fantastic conservation tools because they can protect breeding aggregations, which can then resupply and replenish depleted populations in other areas.” - Andy Kough, Ph.D., Research Biologist

A queen conch's eyes peer out of the bottom of its shell as it sits on the ocean floor sand.

Tracking: Scaling and Perfecting Protected Areas

Queen conch are athletic snails. Unlike many snails that crawl as a movement strategy, queen conch move by leaping: launching themselves upward and forward using the thrust of their muscular foot. Kough and collaborators are placing small devices, called accelerometers, onto conch shells to count the quantity and direction of leaps so we can understand how far and where these animals move, and how it is influenced by seaon, weather and tides.

Data on adult conch movement behavior can help tailor the size of a MPA specific to a breeding aggregation. In addition, if conch are threatened by coastal development, such as dredging, conservationists can use this information to suggest how far away to move impacted snails to mitigate the threat.

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