Coral Shores High School - Tavernier and Island Christian School - Islamorada

On September 26, 2001, students from Coral Shores High School in Tavernier and Island Christian School in Islamorada came to Harbor Branch to learn more about the conch aquaculture program.

The students from Coral Shore High School were in the marine science and marine science honors classes, or the Marine Studies Program. Students in the Marine Studies Program are currently maintaining the conch tanks at Islamorada Fish Company and all three classes plan to have conch in the classroom in the near future. The students from Islamorada Christian School were in the marine biology class. They are being currently being trained to maintain the conch tanks at Islamorada Fish Company and also plan to have conch aquariums in their classroom soon.

The first activity of the day was a tour of HBOI's conch aquaculture facilities. HBOI is currently breeding the queen conch (Strombus gigas) and the Florida fighting conch (Strombus alatus) in captivity. The students observed the adult conch in the broodstock tank and they were even able to see a few of the animals up close and personal!

The tour moved from the broodstock tank to the egg mass holding area and then on to the juvenile areas. The students viewed tray after tray of juvenile Florida fighting conch that are being produced for the aquarium market.

Next, the students were sent back to the classroom to collect some data! Researchers at HBOI were conducting an experiment on the juvenile Florida fighting conch to see which type of food was the most nutritious for the conch. The three types of food tested were:
     1. Gel food made with Ulva
     2. Gel food made with dried Ulva
     3. Artificial conch chow

The shell length and weight of all of the animals in the experiment needed to be recorded, and the students instantly became experienced conch researchers!

Once the data was collected, the students were asked to compare the food types by using the feed conversion ratio (FCR). The FCR is a measure of the grams of feed that are required to produce one gram of weight on the animal. In other words, the FCR tells you how efficiently that animal is using the food.

All of the students were able to draw some conclusions by the end of the day as to which food type was the best choice. In fact, the marine biology class at Islamorada Christian School enjoyed the research so much, they completed entire laboratory reports when they got back home!

Although the students were only at HBOI for a little while, they were able to participate in many activities that will hopefully be useful when they maintain their own conch tanks!