Queen conch aquaculture remains a conservation symbol and is not yet a fisheries solution


ANDREW KOUGH* 1 , 2 ,SHAY L E MA TSUDA2 ,RICHARD APPELDOORN3 E RIK BOMAN4 ,KAY L E Y GAL A S S I NI 2,GAB R I EL DELGADO 5


NELS O N EHRHA RDT 6,ROB E R T GLAZER 7,GAY A GNANALINGAM8 ALE XANDE R TEWF I K 9 and ALLAN S TO N E R 10


Abstract Conservation aquaculture, defined as cultivating aquatic organisms to manage or replenish natural popula- tions, has been advocated as a strategy to enhance fisheries production and help restore declining populations. Culture is especially compelling for species in steep decline and for which there is established methodology. The queen conch Aliger gigas is an example of a species with widely over- exploited populations, with attempts to culture the species commercially ongoing for .40 years. However, hatchery- releases have shown low survival from post-settlement to near maturity, leading to low conservation aquaculture potential. When this is viewed alongside large-scale fishery extractions, it is apparent that it is not commercially feasible to replace wild harvest nor ecologically feasible to replenish queen conch populations using existing aquaculture approaches. An age-based mortality model estimates the magnitude of culture required to replace a single adult of re- productive age. Extrapolations from catch–weight relation- ships highlight the scale of facilities and costs required to partially offset the harvest in a typical Caribbean fishery. Estimates of reproduction to achieve replacement suggest a greater yield from properly protecting natural breeding aggregations. Queen conch aquaculture is useful for scien- tific inquiry, community engagement and education, but not for stock enhancement or population restoration with- out more practical and cost-efficient options. Therefore, protecting breeding aggregations should be prioritized for the ecological viability of the species, as well as for its eco- nomic value for the people and industries that rely upon it.


*Corresponding author, andrew.kough@gmail.com 1IUCN Species Survival Commission Mollusc Specialist Group 2John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, Illinois, USA 3Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez,


Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 4St. Eustatius National Parks, Statia, Dutch Caribbean 5Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Marathon, Florida, USA 6Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, University of


Miami, Miami, Florida, USA 7Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute, Marathon, Florida, USA 8Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 9Coastal Ocean Association for Science and Technology, Saint Augustine,


Florida, USA 10Community Conch, Lopez Island, Washington, USA


Received 18 January 2024. Revision requested 4 April 2024. Accepted 25 September 2024. First published online 29 January 2025.


Keywords Aliger gigas, aquaculture, fisheries, mariculture, queen conch, reintroduction, restoration, stock enhancement


The supplementary material for this article is available at doi.org/10.1017/S0030605324001443


Introduction


ing practices have boomed and peaked, the majority of global fish stocks are now fully exploited or overexploited (McCauley et al., 2015;FAO, 2024). This has led to less pro- ductive ocean ecosystems, a situation further compounded by habitat degradation and climate change (Pauly et al., 2002; Rogers et al., 2019). Despite these declines, the ocean remains vital for the food security and livelihoods ofmillions of people. With careful planning, local fisheriesmanagement supported by international agreements can reverse the negative trajector- ies of marine species and ecosystems (Edgar et al., 2014; Duarte et al., 2020). For example, sustainable fishing practices andmanagement can yield economic and ecological benefits in tandem with food security (Costello et al., 2016). Species conservation status assessments and international con- ventions can help highlight threatened species, protect local populations and control trade in threatened species, and con- servation agreements can help nations commit to setting aside areas asmarinemanaged areas focused on replenishing ecosystems (O’Leary et al., 2016). A combination of marine managed areas, local fisheries conservation tools, and con- trols on trade is needed to maintain livelihoods, food security and biodiversity. Marine aquaculture has also been suggested as an approach to enhance food security given global human population growth (Costello et al., 2020). The idea of a blue revolution reliant on mariculture instead of wild stocks is gaining traction, especially as capture fisheries peaked at the end of the 20th century (Pauly & Zeller, 2016).


F Conservation aquaculture


Conservation aquaculture, defined as ‘the use of human cul- tivation of an aquatic organism for the planned manage- ment and protection of a natural resource’ (Froehlich


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Oryx, 2024, 58(6), 700–709 © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324001443


or a long time, humanity’s relationship with the ocean has been primarily extractive, and as wild-capture fish-


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