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Queen conch - Saint Lucia
Fact Sheet Title  Fact Sheet
Status of stocks and resources 2009
Queen conch - Saint Lucia
Fact Sheet Citation  
Conch of Saint Lucia EEZ
Owned byFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – ownership
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Species List:
Species Ref: en - Queen conch, fr - Lambi, es - Caracol reina, zh - 大凤凰螺
ident Block Queen conch - Saint Lucia
Aq Res
Biological Stock: Yes         Value: National
Reference year: 2008
 
 
Aq Res State Trend
Aq Res State Trend
Aq Res State Trend Aq Res State Trend
Aq Res State TrendF/Fmsy = 1.770 - 1.919High fishing mortality
Aq Res State TrendB/Bmsy = 0.610 - 0.6625Low abundance

The stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring. The abundance of the stock continues to decline. The 2008 landings were beyond the thirty (30) tonnes recommended by the Fourth Annual CRFM Scientific Meeting. The assessment again indicates that the stock is likely to be overfished. The status of the stock appears to have worsened slightly compared to the assessment conducted in 2007.
Habitat Bio
Climatic Zone: Tropical.   Bottom Type: Seagrass; Soft bottom clean sand.   Depth Zone: Coastal - Shallow waters, inshore (0 m - 50 m).   Horizontal Dist: Littoral.   Vertical Dist: Demersal/Benthic.  

Geo Dist
Geo Dist: Unspecified

Water Area Overview
Spatial Scale: National

Water Area Overview
Aq Res Struct
Biological Stock: Yes
Bio Assess
 

The assessment of the conch stock in Saint Lucia was updated using the Schaefer surplus-yield model to include catch and effort data collected in 2008. The surplus production model was a Bayesian model and provided estimates of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). The aim was to update the previous assessment with three additional years of data and try a new prior for virgin abundance based on Saint Lucia data.
Data

Catch and effort data: - Observed conch landings using trip interview during 1996-2008. - Total conch landings: Annual landings from 1993-2008 raised from the trip interview data. - Observed densities: Derived from Saint Lucia Conch Resource Assessment Study Report. Following the recommendations from last year’s report, the measure of fishing effort was the number of air tanks used.
Assess Models
Type:  Biomass-aggregated
Schaefer surplus production models

The structure of the Surplus Production model remained the same as that used in the report of the Fourth Annual CRFM Scientific Meeting. Following the recommendations from last year’s report, the measure of fishing effort was the number of air tanks used. The new prior distribution for the virgin biomass was obtained as follows: - It was assumed that the average biomass density observed in the conch resource assessment study represented an overfished population. Consequently, that density was multiplied by three as an approximation of the virgin biomass density. - The resulting density was multiplied by 7900 hectares which is the combined area of the northern and southern fishing area. - A log normal distribution for virgin biomass was then specified with the log normal mean equal to 7.97 and equal to 27%. - Models were fitted with both the now prior and the prior used last year.
Results

The results indicate that the current biomass of the stock is below the biomass of the stock at MSY (Fig. 2) and the current catch of 37.8 tons is likely to result in over fishing.
Sci Advice

In order to ensure the sustainability of the queen conch fishery and to rebuild the density of the stock over time, the following are recommended: - Fully enforce existing regulations, which make it illegal to harvest immature conch and which allow for a closed season, by: Developing and implementing a National Plan of Action for IUU1 Fishing Improving on monitoring, control and surveillance capabilities of the enforcement agencies (Department of Fisheries, Saint Lucia Royal Police Force, Coast guard etc.) - Establish and enforce the total allowable catch (harvest quota) which, initially, should not be beyond 30 tonnes per year. The reduction of the catch should speed recovery and reduce the risk of further over fishing. - Limit entry into the fishery to traditional fishers, in order to control the fishing effort.
Sources
 
CRFM 2009. CRFM Fishery Report - 2009. Volume 1. Report of Fifth Annual Scientific Meeting – Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 09-18 June 2009. 167p. Click to openhttp://www.crfm.net/images/CRFM_Fishery_Report_-_2009_-_Vol._1_26.01.10.pdf
FAO Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission. Report of the second meeting of the CFMC/OSPESCA/WECAFC/CRFM Working Group on Queen Conch, Panama City, Panama, 18–20 November 2014. Click to openhttp://www.fao.org/3/a-i5587t.pdf
Bibliography
 
All references to figures, tables and bibliography in the text are found within the source of information.
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