Jenny , you wrote:Strombus gigas is listed in CITES (the treaty of
which the US is a signatory, along with 100+ other nations; for those who
might not be familiar with the term, CITES is the Convention In Trade of
Endangered Species).
 
The local news here in south florida ran a short blurp about strombus gigas
and according to the florida fish and game areas in the keys that in the
1970's had 30 gigas per acre now are up to over 100 in the same area.
This might indicate that the species are on the come back or that a large
"herd" was moving through the test area at the time.
 
This brings me to another point, at a secluded cove that i frequent i have
found several fresh dead gigas shells
that have been dumped, obviously this was a spot where the illegally taken
gigas are being cleaned and the broken shell dumped, what a waste, ten to
one the offenders are recent arrivals from one of our neighboring island
that if caught know they just get a slap on the wrist and please don't do
that again. The "conch" meat can be bought at the local market for less then
$2.50 per lbs. and the shell if properly cleaned can feach upwards of
$20-$40.
 
To top it all off, we dove on molassass reef recently and the bottom was
wall to wall gigas, all mature and one specimen was lemon yellow, as the
punishment for "us" keeping this one shell would have been forfeiture of the
vessel, several days in the houscow and I'm sure many hours of community
service. needless to say it's probably still there. mark