The Amazing Race of a Queen Conch

Brent whom recorded this footage, and his wife Elsa, seen in the footage, recently visited Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean for a scuba diving vacation. Descending onto what is known as Katherine’s Reef on the north side of the island made for some beautiful sights. Along with many types of hard and soft corals, thousands of fish, they also got to witness an amazing slow motion activity. This was the movement of a Queen conch. Queen conch is a species of large edible sea snail found in the tropical northwestern Atlantic, from Bermuda to Brazil, reaching up to 35.2 centimetres (13.9 in) in shell length. The queen conch is herbivorous and lives mainly in seagrass beds, but this can change depending on the surrounding terrain of the sea floor. Having only a few predators being larger sea snails, starfish, and of course man, the conch generally live around 7 years, but have been know to live 20 years. The conch meat has been enjoyed as a meal for humans for many centuries and their shell has been used for decoration as a “gemstone” and as many of you have heard, a signalling blow horn. The snail moves across the ocean floor by means of a muscle or “foot”. In the video you see a claw shape protruding as the animal begins to move forward, this is the proboscis and it’s eye. These amazing creature move about for feeding as well as mating of course. This footage was shot in late May, right in the middle of mating season. Enjoy the video and see one main reason these animals walk across the ocean floor.