The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[wilz]

:happy:

Apology accepted.
Can you tell us where you see them in great quantity? I don't want any, I'm just curious. I sometimes dive in Palm Beach County but mostly Pompano down to the Keys. I rarely see ANY type of live conch on a dive.
I dove Cay Sal Banks this summer and saw thousands of live Queen Conch, but I don't recall seeing any horse conch.

Thank you for being gracious.:happy:
We dive from The Seagate to Paul's reef so we cover over 20+ miles of reef. Most people don't see them because you have to go out into the scatter and be willing to do some sand diving to find those productive spots. I saw about 3 or 4 horse conch on the way and grabbed one for making conch chowder. I have even seen a conch "walk" which was on the eastern side of the Horseshoe reef and it left an impression on me. Dozens of conch in a row; I left them to their pilgrimage.
BTW, the pic I posted represented the catch of many divers over 2 dive trips. We are not out to pillage.
I hope we can dive together, sometime.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Thank you, and I hope we get to dive together as well! Now that I know that Horse Conch as as destructive to our local underwater environment as Lionfish are, "go get 'em"!!!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Debby, what makes horse conch as destructive as queen conch? Because they eat other conch? So do many other types of conch eat other conch.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Read the links above that were provided by very helpful SBB-ers.

Bottom line: they eat endangered Queen conch.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I read the other posts. There was 1 sentence about them eating Queen conch. I am pretty sure that the horse conch is not the only threat to queen conchs, perhaps somebody with knowledge of this can chime in, but I hardly think killing all horse conch is a solution. Lots of other native fishes eat endangered species. Shall we kill all them too?

 

[wilz]

I read the other posts. There was 1 sentence about them eating Queen conch. I am pretty sure that the horse conch is not the only threat to queen conchs, perhaps somebody with knowledge of this can chime in, but I hardly think killing all horse conch is a solution. Lots of other native fishes eat endangered species. Shall we kill all them too?

On several occasions I have seen horse conch devouring Queens and we actually do not take them because technically that could be construed as harvesting the Queen as well. With regard to lionfish, there is a theory that it may have a natural predator in goliath grouper, and thus FLA has not seen the inundation that is occuring in the rest of the Carribean. The eradication of non-indigenous species must be weighed against the potential harm it may be causing. It seems that lionfish have become a problem elsewhere that we do not need in FLA.

 

[stu_in_fl]

back to the diving pics....here's one from yesterday on Kev's boat:

 

[scubadada]

back to the diving pics....here's one from yesterday on Kev's boat:

Back on track, thanks

Good diving, Craig

 

[scubadada]

Two great dives with Wil and Alex off the Explorer this morning, the Castor, with many Goliath Grouper, and 85 minutes at Black Condo. I hear Kevin is at the dive show practicing his acceptance speech for tomorrow morning.

Good diving, Craig

 

[pidgiepoo]

I hear Kevin is at the dive show practicing his acceptance speech for tomorrow morning.

Good diving, Craig

Someone down there better post at 11:05 am that he won, so the rest of us can celebrate,too.