Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Farmin' the Conch" Story

It was an ordinary day. Heading out to the Conch Farm on the isolated eastern end of Provo (conch is pronounced conk). It is located amid a flat and sunbaked terrain of scrub and sand. Nine years ago, while visiting the island of Provo, we made a trip to the Conch Farm, only to find it had closed for rennovations. Then, a week before our vacation this year, we found out that the farm was closed again due to storm surge associated with Tropical Storm Hanna. But, it is now open and we are excited to visit the only farm of its kind in the world. Trade Wind Industries (TWI), or The Conch Farm, was first built as a research facility by owner and founder Chuck Hesse in 1984, but now exports much of the conch to the Florida Keys as well as Miami. It's breeding techniques could help save the conch from extinction. Man is the conch's biggest predator and only a tiny percentage of hatched conch eggs survive in the wild, whereas 25% of the eggs survive at the Conch Farm. We turned off of the main highway onto a rutted and rocky road toward the farm. Minutes later I was parking the car and we were headed to the entrance. After paying, we began out walking trip through the farm. The tour starts with a biology lesson and a description of the hatchery technology. From there we travel through the metamorphosis buildings where we see the more than two million conch that reside in ponds in various stages of growth. The conch are housed in greenhouse-like structures, then eventually transferred to holding ponds and later to ocean holding pens. Our tour culminated with a visit to the small pond where Sally and Jerry, the two trained, 6-year-old, full-grown conch, are coaxed out of their shells so our guide can point out the main differences between the male and the female. The goal of TWI is to expand conch production at its farm in the Turks and Caicos Islands and to license grow-out farms throughout the Caribbean. Achieving these goals will increase supply and reduce production and shipping costs. TWI hopes to eventually expand into Asia where conch is in high demand, both for its nutritional benefits and acknowledged cultural and aphrodisiac properties. Once the farmed conch is in the marketplace at prices lower than that of wild conch, the wild stocks will be able to recover. Pretty interesting tour with lots of photo ops along the way. Extremely educational, also. Now, all I have to do is aquire a liking for the chewy whatever it is. Can't stand to see it harvested and then cut into pieces for chowder, salads, or stew. Really gross! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - check out the neat photos I managed to take during my tour.