30 mars 2017

Why A Conch Farm Is Leading Conservation Efforts

By Kevin Myers


Mariculture or aquaculture has steadily developed in the Bahamas region and on the entire archipelago based Caribbean Sea countries. Some of the earliest species to have been taken into in these kinds of projects are now thriving successfully. And this success has paved the way for even better facilities for protecting marine species while making them commercially viable.

One such specie is that of the Caribbean Queen Conches, which have been a staple of Caribbean diets for many centuries. Conch farm in Turks and Caicos now have moved forward scientifically and practically so that its mariculture system is among the most advanced in the world. You can study the subject online for more relevant views and details of this.

Nowadays, companies on this field are running their operations with the aid of TCI authorities, projecting an excellent future for a species that is still considered commercially endangered. The many years of unregulated harvesting have depopulated the Caribbean of this specie. The Caribbean Queen is undergoing a minor conservation miracle thanks to the project.

Specialists here have created a deep sea farming method that can be done with offshore cages. This method is revolutionary and is now being pilot tested for several endemic fish species that are becoming more endangered. The government of the islands and its partners has applied what they learned from conch farms for grouper, pompano, snapper and cobia.

The pioneer places are stimulating the TCI economy with a great source of animal protein that remains affordable and the creation of more jobs for locals. Also, the wild conches are getting some kind of relief from the commercial operations. These are systems that run on excellent technical capabilities with the hatcheries and submerged deep sea cages.

For the Caicos group, the main specie being addressed is the strombus gigas, but diversification is ongoing. The aquaculture revolution here is ongoing, and now has things that make it an industry that is friendly to the environment. When completed, the new project can enable TCI to be one of the most successful seafaming countries worldwide.

Places for the farms have been studied for having deeper waters with reliable currents. They will work best for the larger scale farms being built undersea. Other kinds of conches, though, are still in danger from overfishing. Without the advocacy of the farms in TCI, they would be in real danger of becoming extinct.

The farming operations are becoming highly attractive places for interested conservationists and concerned people to visit. The companies do not like for their operations to become tourism intensive even as the islands has a good industry in this regard. A limited number of tours and visits are now accepted, which is something of heaven for a certain type of eco activist.

The seafarming method has achieved a lot of things that is now being studied for application on other places. Despite the fact that the tech developed here is for warmer seas, these can be adapted. There are a number of good websites to further study this topic.




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