Queen Conch

• It has been listed in CITES Appendix II since 1992, and exporting it requires non-detriment findings.
• It is not considered adult until the lip of the shell thickens: animals with a thin lip have not yet bred, and taking them is one of the causes of the fishery's collapse.
• It moves in hops, driving its operculum into the sand like a walking stick, instead of crawling like most snails.
• Its shell has been used for centuries as a ceremonial trumpet in the Caribbean.
• It is the most emblematic marine snail of the Caribbean, and also a fishery resource of the first order: its meat sustains fisheries in more than twenty countries and its shell is a classic souvenir.
• That pressure has kept it on Appendix II of CITES since 1992, and several countries have closed or restricted the fishery because the stocks have been depleted.
• It does not crawl like other snails: it uses its claw-shaped operculum as a pole, digging it into the sand and propelling itself in leaps, which lets it escape from predatory snails.
• It has sophisticated eyes at the tips of two stalks, with a lens and a retina, capable of forming an image — something exceptional in a gastropod.
• Its reproduction depends on density: if individuals are left too far apart they never find one another, and depleted populations stop reproducing even though specimens remain. It is a documented Allee effect.
• The shell only develops its thick, curved lip on maturing, which is why catches of thin-lipped young individuals are especially damaging.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - external calcareous shell (mollusc)

Habitat and environment

Seagrass beds and sandy bottoms of the Caribbean, from 0 to 30 m

Sexual maturity

3-4 years

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Lobatus gigas