A. Species

Scientific name: Strombus gigas

Common name(s): Queen conch, Caracol pala

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status:

B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

• Colombia
• Atlantic - western central

Country/Region:

C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: National Level

Name/Details of location: Colombia - the oceanic archipelago of San Andrés, Providence and Santa Catalina

D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 1985

End Year: 2003

E. Information about the use

How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Type of use: Extractive

Practice of use: Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources

Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal

Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism

Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed and Decorative and aesthetic

Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade

Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law

F. Information about the Users

Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people and National / local private sector

G. Information about the sustainability of use

Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species

• Improve regional controls regarding illegal fishing and get consensus among managers in the south-western region to account for illegal fishing when defining TAC for CITES. • It may be appropriate to include a minimum spawning population density as a fundamental sustainability criterion in regional conch fishery management regimes. • Conduct regional connectivity studies to determine the level of larval supply and connectedness to maintain key “stepping stone” populations. • Strengthen precautionary measures if a population is composed mostly by very old adults (perhaps low recruitment) or juveniles (reducing reproductive output). • Promote bi-national agreements to reach consistent regional management strategies and policies, particularly in the areas with existent international treaties. • CITES may continue acting as a dominant force in enforcement. In fact, specific enforcement workshops and better communication among managers in the South-western Caribbean region were recently identified as a priority to strengthen the functionality of a queen conch networking. • To overcome budget limitations, a more coordinated research agenda and collaborative work should be explored to address critical knowledge gaps.

Record source

Information about the record source: grey_lit

Date of publication/issue/production: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Date of record entry: 2023-10-03