When I cruised the Bahamas in the decade of the '70's Queen Conch where abundant. The massive shell piles found in every settlement contained fully mature shells only. Local wisdom was, you do not eat your children if you want to see your community grow.
As the years went by the conch became harder to find. It was explained to me that one of the reasons for the diminished supply of this Bahamian staple was the taking of small conch the locals call "rollers" by the boating tourists. The small shells have thin and brittle lips. They are young and have not reached sexual maturity. http://www.freshmarine.com/queen-conch-snail.html What some call over harvesting, other liken to clear cutting. It is not limited to Conch - Lobster are likewise stockpiled in boaters freezers. I have met people who have bragged about the hundreds of pounds of tails taken from the reefs they have cleared of lobster. People who practice this selfish and shortsighted method of ripping off the commons are looked upon with scorn by the locals and others intolerant of greed. Philip Philip & Marilyn Lange AE4OV & KD4JRC ORYOKI Witness 35 Catamaran There is no reason to have a plan if you are not going to pretend to follow it _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
