Blue BioTrade in Grenada: Presentation of the queen conch stock assessment results

Background

Since 2020, UNCTAD, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in cooperation with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have implemented the project “Seizing the trade and business potential of Blue BioTrade products for promoting sustainable livelihoods and conservation of marine diversity in selected Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries”. The project aimed at empowering small-scale coastal producers to produce and trade queen conch (Strombus gigas) products sustainably through the application of BioTrade Principles and Criteria in Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Grenada, a small Southern Caribbean country of only 344 km² has a total shelf area of 900 km², within which are large areas of sand and coral rubble that support queen conch populations. Queen conch fishery is important to Grenadian food culture and heritage as well as its economy. 

Key Issues

Whilst global demand for queen conch is booming, small-scale coastal producers in the Eastern Caribbean do not fully seize the opportunities offered by sustainable conch markets.

In Grenada alone, fishery efforts have been in decline for at least a decade, making it the smallest conch fishery in Caribbean Regional Fisheries. Regrettably, this is despite the country’s notable seafood processing and conch value addition capacity. 

Crucially, the queen conch is a CITES Appendix II-listed species, which means that its trade should be subject to regulations compatible with legal, traceable and sustainable use. As of 2022, Grenada has been subject to a recommendation to suspend trade under CITES linked to its non- submission of annual reports (all trade including the queen conch) since 2013, and another suspension linked to a CITES Review of Significant Trade (RST) for the queen conch since 2006. In May 2022, Grenada had provisionally avoided a third suspension under the National Legislation Project through the technical assistance of the Blue BioTrade project partners.

Objective

In response to the immediate and long-term need to enable legal, sustainable and traceable trade of queen conch through the implementation of Blue BioTrade concept in Grenada, the Blue BioTrade project organised a 2-day workshop in St. George’s, Grenada on 17-18 October 2022 to train staff members of the Grenada Fisheries Division on how to conduct an assessment of the queen conch population. This was followed by a field survey from 18-22 October 2022 to determine of the structure of the population, lip thickness, sex composition, density, and abundance in two selected primary fishing grounds around Carriacou and Petite Martinique and the south of Grenada Island (i.e., Calliste and Saint George’s). 

Furthermore, the Blue BioTrade project in Grenada aims to promote fisheries-dependent and independent data collection, monitoring and periodic field research and reporting of findings that are envisaged to support the country to comply with its obligations under the Convention, and thereby benefitting from potential export earnings from the queen conch value chain.