conchs

A lawsuit was filed Wednesday over the need for the federal government to designate critical habitat for the threatened queen conch off the coast of Florida, along with the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Rather than sheer number, scientists looked at conch behavior to devise what they say is a more efficient way to protect disappearing herds of reproducing conch.

Rising temperatures shut down some conchs’ impulse to reproduce. So scientists are ferrying them to colonies in deeper, cooler waters.

The potential loss of conch in the Bahamas reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods.

On a vast, wind-battered bank wedged between Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas, scientists studying the troubling decline of queen conchs have discovered some…