Florida Atlantic University has been gifted US$2.8 million by philanthropic investment group, Builders Initiative, to help establish a queen conch hatchery in Grand Bahama.
The funds will be used by FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute to both replenish queen conch populations throughout the Caribbean and create a 25 acre innovation hub for researchers working to make the islands more sustainable.
“We’re extremely grateful to Builders Initiative for their generous support of our queen conch restoration efforts,” said FAU president Stacy Volnick.
“FAU Harbor Branch’s work in aquaculture is helping to meet the growing global demand for food, thanks to partners like Builders Initiative who share our belief in sustainable solutions to environmental challenges.”
FAU Harbor Branch will team up with the Bahamian community of Grand Bahama on a pilot-scale queen conch farm led by Megan Davis, PhD, a research professor with 40 years of research in the field. It is FAU’s fifth such partnership to restore the queen conch across the Caribbean.
The project will begin this summer with a mobile queen conch lab at Coral Vita, a commercial coral farm, where scientists will grow queen conch from their egg stage to juveniles.
The innovation hub, known as Conservation Cove, will include a tropical aquaculture park, aquarium, research and education hub, co-working spaces and a hospitality centre.
