Traditional fishers in the archipelago earn less than US $1.00 per hour or US $2-3.00 per pound of conch, and many of them have large families to sustain. The recently declared Seaflower MPA setup under CORALINA leadership, with no-take-zones provides perfect opportunities to recover this key species in the reefs where natural recovery is not yet taken place. To enhance this natural process the authors are looking for innovative approaches to allow traditional fishers a better quality of life, while actively participating in queen conch protection and recovery. The main goal of this project is to introduce methods that include conservation education, conch ranching, and restocking marine protected areas with reproductive stock.
Proceedings can be found online at http://www.gcfi.org/, Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute. Proceedings are not copyrighted and there is no charge for non-commercial use. However, GCFI strongly encourages individuals who wish to use figures, images or other components of a paper published in the proceedings to contact the author to receive approval. GCFI became an independent not‐for profit corporation in 1985 and is entirely supported by member contributions, grants, and subscriptions to its Proceedings. This manuscript may be cited as: Shawl, A., Prada, M., Castro, E., Taylor, E., & Davis, M. (2007). Queen conch ranching and educational outreach as part of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, Colombia. In R. Grober-Dunsmore and B. D. Keller (Eds.), Caribbean connectivity: Implications for marine protected area management: proceedings of a special symposium 6 November 2006 to 10 November 2006, fifty-ninth annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute, Belize City, Belize, 59 (pp. 79-83). Silver Spring, MD: Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #1772.