Conch is a pervasive part of the Bahamian culture and seascape. You see conch shells everywhere. On many of the islands where we have hiked, conch shells are used to line the paths to indicate which way to go. You see both dead and live conch in the water and on beaches everywhere you go. There are almost always fresh conch salad stands on the populated islands. They take the live conch out of the water right in front of you, remove the conch, strip it, chop it, add some onion tomato and lime juice and voila! Conch salad. I am embarrassed to confess neither of us has tried it yet. I’m not all that fond of ceviche (i.e., raw) and this is basically the same thing. Plus once you see one cleaned and see the slimy creature inside, it’s not very appetizing…They do make beautiful shells though!
At the regatta at Little Farmers Cay, Ramon, who has lived on the island all of his life, was happy to explain to me how you get them out of their shells and clean them and most importantly, how to check for the rare, but very valuable, conch pearl that is sometimes found. He had a conch salad stand on the beach and was cleaning the conch as needed in batches. He had been catching conch all week in preparation for the regatta and festival. He knocks a hole in their shell and pulls a wire through it so he can string them together and keep them from crawling away. He keeps them in the seawater until just before removing them from their shells and making the conch salad. He had stockpiled about 60-70 conch.
Ramon said he finds his conch in anywhere between 10 and 40 feet of water, but he wouldn’t share his favorite places with me! He said the large ones he was cleaning that day were probably 8-10 years old. You can find baby conch in tiny spiral shells in piles in shallow water. Apparently they keep their shell for their whole life and grow their shell on the outside creating more spirals. As the animal grows, it moves to the outer spirals.
Cleaning the conch once it is removed from shell:
At sunset most days that we are in an anchorage with other boats, you hear a couple conch shells blown as the sun sets. I have a shell, but need to fill in the hole made to remove the animal and then cut off the end to make a conch horn. Future project! In the meantime, David has a party horn he got from the Superbowl game at the bar. That makes quite a racket, so it suffices, but we do get a few strange looks.
David enjoying sunset with friends Richard and Michelle from S/V Runa:
