UWI’s Discovery Bay Marine Lab begins Queen conch restoration project with mobile lab

The University of the West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory (UWI-DBML) has launched an ambitious project to restore the Queen conch population in Jamaica’s overfished marine environment.

The Queen conch mobile lab was developed by Dr Megan Davis, research professor at the Florida Atlantic University, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

A 10-month ban was placed on the fishing, sale and export of conch in March 2019 after a scientific assessment of theQueen conch stock on the Pedro Bank that year. After the ban expired at the end of January 2020, it was extended to March that year to allow for the further recovery of conch stock. This restoration project is expected to significantly boost the conch population in Jamaican waters.

2,000 conchs per year

The project, being done in partnership with the Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the Jamaica Conch Restoration Project Ltd (JCRP), began in April and is aimed at growing 2,000 conchs per year of shell size four to 10mm.

The egg masses will be cultivated in the mobile unit from juvenile stage until they are mature enough to be released in the Discovery Bay fish sanctuary.

The project will utilise Jamaica’s first mobile lab, fitted in a cargo trailer measuring 20 feet by eight feet, fully equipped to grow the Queen conch from egg mass stage to early juvenile stage using a flow-through seawater re-circulatory system to grow the conch.

According to the UWI-DBML, “the lab also features a microalgae culture area (microalgae is the food for the conch larvae, called veligers), all of which is designed to operate on solar power with backup batteries and inverter”.

Funded by the National Environment and Planning Agency, the National Fisheries Authority, Jamaica Conservation Partners, and the US Embassy Public Affairs Section – federal grants, the project will facilitate research, teaching, and outreach schools, community organisations, fishers and other stakeholders.

A successful completion of the project will see it being replicated at other fish sanctuaries in Jamaica.