While you won’t find conch on menus at seafood joints on the Cape and Islands, in recent years it has become one of the southern New England fishing community’s most lucrative fisheries, with most of the catch heading to Asia.
Fishermen in southern New England have been so successful that state officials now say that unless significant conservation measures are implemented soon, the little-known industry will be in danger of collapse.
According to the state Division of Marine Fisheries, last year the state’s conch fishery brought in more than $6 million. For many fishermen, conch has come to replace lobster as the catch of choice, after stocks of the crustacean dropped in southern New England’s warming ocean waters, said state senior marine fisheries biologist Robert Glenn.
“As opportunities to fish for lobster have dramatically declined, the guys who historically didn’t conch fish are now putting a substantial amount of effort into it,” he said.
A jump in price of conch in recent years due to increased demand from Asia created what state fisheries managers called a “gold rush” mentality for the sea snail among fishermen from the Cape and Islands, and Buzzards Bay.
