The Puerto Rico, Naguabo Aquaculture Center is located at the Naguabo Fishing Association on the Húcares Beach near the Malecon de Naguabo. This project is a partnership between the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Queen Conch Lab, Conservación ConCiencia, and Naguabo Fishing Association.
This Naguabo Aquaculture Center has a queen conch hatchery and nursery for restoration and an aquaponic system that is used to grow sea vegetables for culinary dishes and coastal restoration. This Aquaculture Center serves as a demonstration and training facility for Puerto Rico and other Caribbean countries. It is supported with grants from Saltonstall-Kennedy NOAA Fisheries, USDA Agricultural Research Service, and Puerto Rico Sea Grant.
Founder and Executive Director
Conservación ConCiencia
Research Professor
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
President
Naguabo Fishing Association
Treasurer
Naguabo Fishing Association
Aquaculture Manager
Conservación ConCiencia
Hatchery Assistant
Conservación ConCiencia
Research Intern
Conservación ConCiencia
Aquaculture Technician
Conservación ConCiencia
Aquaculture Intern
Conservación ConCiencia
The yellow building on the shore is the Naguabo Fishing Association at Húcares Beach.
Hatchery courtyard (September 2019)
Hatchery courtyard (June 2021)
Larval tanks (August 2020)
Larval tanks (June 2021)
Inside the hatchery (August 2020)
Inside the hatchery (June 2021)
Microalgae shelves (January 2020)
Microalgae shelves (June 2021)
Saltwater reservoir (October 2018)
Saltwater reservoir (June 2021)
Hatchery (January 2020)
Hatchery (June 2021)
Doors (January 2020)
Doors (June 2021)
Larval tank area (January 2020)
Larval tank area (June 2021)
Touch tank area (September 2019)
Touch tank area (June 2021)
Juvenile tanks (September 2019)
Juvenile tanks (June 2021)
Microscopy table (January 2020)
Microscopy table (June 2021)
Seawater filtration system (September 2019)
Seawater filtration system (June 2021)
In this video, Dr. Davis and Raimundo Espinoza go into great detail around the founding, model, and mission of the Naguabo Aquaculture Center. Presented by NOAA's Office of Aquaculture.
With significant funding from Builders Initiative, we are partnering with Blue Action Lab to unite with the community and its local NGOs to pilot-test queen conch aquaculture for restoration, sustainable seafood, and pearl culture. The project will help replenish queen conch populations and develop new workforce opport
The Bahamas National Trust with FAU Queen Conch as their scientific advisor is operating the 1st mobile queen conch hatchery in the community of Rolle Town, Exuma located next to Moriah Harbour Cay National Park. The project goal is to work in partnership with the community to grow small juvenile conch for restoration in seagrass beds of of the National Park.
In 2016 and 2017, Mr. Van Bernhard with Hummingbird Cay Foundation and Megan Davis, Ph.D. with FAU Harbor Branch worked together to build a partnership project at Hummingbird Cay, Exuma Cays, Bahamas to restore the queen conch. We developed a small experimental Queen Conch Hatchery on the island. Students and community members participated on project. These partnership efforts helped to motivate the creation of other restoration queen conch hatchery projects in the Caribbean.
Investigations on the length of the conch larval stage included growing the larvae in situ in a mesocosm. Growth was faster than in a laboratory setting. Funded by Caribbean Marine Research Center (Davis, Hodgkins, Stoner. 1996. MEPS, Davis. 1998. FIT Dissertation).
Queen conch need a trophic cue for settlement. An array of macroalgae, epiphytes and sediment cues were tested (Davis and Stoner. 1994. JEMBE).
Early juvenile predation was studied using micropredators such as worms and crabs. Funded by Caribbean Marine Research Center (Ray-Culp, Davis, Stoner. 1997. JSR, Ray-Culp, Davis, Stoner. 1999. JEMBE).
Queen conch restoration field studies were conducted comparing survival and growth of hatchery-reared conch with wild conch. Overall predation was higher on hatchery-reared conch. Funded by Caribbean Marine Research Center (Stoner and Davis. 1994. Fisheries Bulletin US).
In 2020 the Curaçao Marine Research Center (CMRC, a collaboration between the Curaçao Sea Aquarium, Sub Station Curaçao and R.V. Chapman Shipping) built a large-scale queen conch hatchery as part of new research facility. The goal of this hatchery is to improve the natural queen conch population on Curaçao by releasing cultured juveniles. Furthermore, juveniles can be delivered to interested parties and the hatchery infrastructure can be used for scientific research.
The Sea Aquarium houses a dense population of queen conch in the dolphin pools and one has easy access to egg masses during the breeding season,
The hatchery is financed with funds from Curaçao Sea Aquarium, the Curaçao government and recently the European Union (the Resembid program). Dr. Megan Davis is the Curaçao hatchery advisor and coach.
The Florida and West Indian fighting conch readily lay eggs in captivity and can be cultured for the seafood and aquarium trade. FAU Harbor Branch developed large scale culture techniques for these conch. The fighting and queen conch have similar characteristics in terms of biology, development, taste and meat appearance. Harbor Branch is working on developing a business model to determine if fighting conch can be a potential species to supplement the queen conch food market if it can be grown in sufficient quantity. (Davis and Cantillo Villa. 2019. World Aquaculture Magazine, Davis and Shawl. 2005. GCFI Proceedings, Shawl et al. 2005. GCFI Proceedings)
Predator-prey relations between queen conch and spiny lobsters were studied. Predation type varied according to conch and lobster size. (Davis. 1999. GCFI Proceedings, Davis. 1992. FIT Thesis)
FAU Harbor Branch researchers were the first to breed queen conch in captivity. These conch laid viable egg masses and offspring were reared to juvenile stages. (Shawl and Davis. 2004. JSR)
Acclimating or conditioning conch in an enclosure prior to release in the wild will improve survival of the hatchery-reared conch. The conch will "learn" to bury to assist in avoiding predation and they will "learn" to graze on natural foods. (Spring. 2008. FIT Dissertation)
FAU Harbor Branch in collaboration with Blue Dream Ltd, Secretaria de Agricultura y Pesca de Colombia, CORALINA and the fishers established two ranching cages in Saint Catalina within a no-take zone of the SEAFLOWER Biosphere Reserve. The cages were stocked with juvenile conch and the fishers from Old Providence monitored the conch's growth and maintained the cages for 7-months. The conch were then released in deep water to reestablish a breeding population. Funding for this 2006-2007 project was from Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund and SheilaJohnson Brutsch Charitable Trust. (Shawl et al. 2007. GCFI Proceedings)
Megan Davis was co-founder of the Caicos Conch Farm in 1984 and was instrumental in developing the commercial techniques to raise millions of larvae and small juveniles from the egg stage. The Conch Farm located on Providenciales was in operation from 1984 - 2015 and sold many conch for consumption throughout the island and also shipped conch to Florida for the aquarium trade. The techniques developed over the years by Megan and others at the Conch Farm continue to be applied to the other FAU Harbor Branch conch projects. (numerous papers - see Megan Davis Google Scholar)
The first hatchery Megan experimented with growing queen conch was in 1981 on Pine Cay with the Foundation for PRIDE.
In nature, one conch pearl is found out of every 10,000 conch. In 2006, FAU Harbor Branch scientists, Drs. Hector Acosta-Salmon and Megan Davis, were the first to reliably produce and patent the culture of queen conch pearls. Scientists had been attempting this for 25 years, and Harbor Branch succeeded in 6 months. Conch cultured pearls are produced from a renewable resource because the conch are not sacrificed during the process and 100% of the conch survive the culturing pearl process. Each conch can produce multiple pearls. (Acosta Salmon and Davis. 2007. Aquaculture)
This video highlights predator-prey interactions between juvenile spiny lobsters and juvenile hatchery-reared queen conch. Lobsters use three different methods to consume conch (crush, peel, or chip) and the method depends on the size of the lobster and the conch. Shells of conch with a size of 5 – 7 cm (2 – 3 inches) shell length, in most cases, escaped predation by lobsters. Produced in 1992 by Megan Davis as part of her Master's degree.
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