Abstract

The ‘Friends of the Queen Conch Foundation’ is an initiative which pretends to conserve the Queen Conch, through the development of a stock restoration project in some of the MPAs of the San Andres and Old Providence Archipelago, Colombia. This project is set as an answer to the actual stock crisis, a result of overfishing as well as terrestrial, coastal and marine polluting activities. To attain this goal the Foundation is calling into action different Governmental Entities and the community, also developing environmental education campaigns. To increase the numbers and the densities of the depleted populations of Queen Conchs in the MPAs, this Project will initially include the collection of sexually adult male and female individuals, their transportation and holdings in artificial enclosures located in natural environments (‘Conch-breeding habitats’) and the protection of their egg masses from natural predators in specially built pens inside those enclosures. Afterwards, the project will permit that some of the egg masses continue their natural development in the pens, through eclosion into veligerous larvae, allowing for their release into the surrounding local currents. Some other egg masses will be collected and transported to a laboratory, where will be apply maricultural techniques for the complete development of the eggs and larvae through the settling stadium. Later on, the project intends to release the just-settled individuals into their MPAs’ natural habitats, as well as the release of the initial Queen Conch parental stock back into the areas where the individuals were captured. The just-settled individuals will be monitored in the wild through the pre-juvenile stadium. Finally, the project will produce the results of the field and laboratory experiments, including the breeding and feeding behaviors, the survival and growth rates, and the analysis of the conditions of the MPA´S for the Queen Conch Restoration.

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