Abstract

The results of the national report on the fisheries of queen conch, Strombus gigas, are presented, including statistics on catch, local sale and consumption as well as exports for the period 1995-2006. In terms of volume of landings the queen conch used to be the most important species targeted by fishers in the Dominican Republic. The main catches are registered for Beata Island, Parque Nacional Jaragua (PNJ), in the Southwestern end of the country, and Silver Bank (Dirección Nacional de Parques, 1986) in the Atlantic coast. Queen conch is capture by free and hookah diving, in reef plains and seagrass beds. Previous studies conducted in PNJ reported a Catch per Unit Effort of 39.93 kg/trip/boat and densities of 53.0 conch/hectares. In Parque Nacional del Este (PNE) the results suggest a shift in density estimates from 283 conch/hectares in 1996 to 14.4 in year 2000. These data suggest that the resource has not been permanently damaged by overfishing in PNJ and that with an appropriate management can be recovered. The case is critical, however, in PNE. Further and more complete studies are needed to determine the status of queen conch stocks at a national level, as well as to better understand the commercialization chains and conversion factors for the species

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