Conch Season ::The Department of Environment and Coastal Resources::

Conch, Strombus gigas, has been harvested in our Islands from the very first human habitation over 1200 years ago. Taino and Lucayan Indians made extensive use of this shallow water resource for their subsistence and massive middens of discarded conch shells are still visible near their village sites. In the colonial period, the Bermudians, American Loyalist refugees and their slaves, the forefathers of our present population, continued to fish for conchs, primarily for local consumption. With the development of larger trading sloops and closer trading ties with Haiti, only 100 miles to the South of our Islands, conch became a major item of trade and one of the few cash crops that could be utilized by the subsistence fishermen of the Caicos Islands. By the late 1800’s, conchs were dried by the thousands and shipped to Haiti by the millions aboard Caicos- built trading sloops, where they were eagerly received as a cheap food source that was rich in protein. Turks and Caicos customs records have recorded this trade since 1904. The dried conch trade still continues today on a very small scale but reached its peak in 1943 when 3.9 million conchs were exported.

Fishing seasons are established in several ways. The Turks & Caicos Islands comply with the CITES Convention Standards for Conch Harvest. The TCI Scientific Authority makes a quota recommendation to the Management Authority within the Ministry of Natural Resources. In recent years the annual quota has been set at approximately 1.6 million pounds of unprocessed meat (excluding shell). Once the quota for queen conch is met, then all export of this product is prohibited.

Undersize Catch
The Government is in the process of establishing a close season for conch also, which would run from July 15 th to October 15 th.