Abstract

The Queen Conch (Lobatus gigas) has been a very important fishery in Puerto Rico since the 1980s. Since the middle of the 1980’s the SCUBA divers fishers have shown an increase in their number of active fishers and pounds landed. Currently, queen conch fishers are one of the most significant components of full-time commercial fishers. The SCUBA divers primary target is the queen conch and lobsters, thus both species have been in the top five landed in Puerto Rico since 1988. The mentioned facts resulted in large fishing pressure on the queen conch. Hurricane María impacted Puerto Rico. This was a catastrophic hurricane on September 20, 2017. The Puerto Rico population was impacted by category five winds of 175 – 200 MPH. The hurricane was 300 miles wide. Queen Conchs are found in shallow, clear water of oceanic or near-oceanic salinities at depths generally less than 75 meters and most often in water less than 30 meters deep. Queen conchs are likely limited to that depth range by limits in seagrass and algae cover. Unfortunately, it was reported by queen conch fishers that Hurricane María destroyed most of the queen conch habitats and banks. During 2018-19, the commercial fishers reduce their average catch per trip from 40 pounds per trip to approximately 12 pounds. In 2016 a total of 212,355 queen conch pounds were reported decreasing to 136,019 in 2019. The year 2022 observed an increase in queen conch landings, fishers reported 300,601 pounds, resulting in a 44 pounds queen landed by trip. The queen conch's average cost was approximately $6.00 per pound before the hurricane and two years after the hurricane the average increased to $9.00. Later during 2020-2022, the cost of conch per pound was around $10-$12 per pound. In the west coast, most of the SCUBA commercial fishers had been fishing at 115-130 feet dept.