Delgado et al.: Translocation of Strombus gigas as a strategy to rehabilitate the Florida Keys conch population 



285 



Nearshore females 



Nearshore males 



Figure 6 



The percentage of gametogenic tissue of resident nearshore and translocated near- 

 shore queen conch {Strombus gigas) by sex and season. The dotted line separates the 

 categories that were combined for statistical analyses. 



and fall (Table 4). Most resident offshore males had >75% 

 gametogenic tissue throughout the study period, whereas 

 most resident nearshore males had <25% (Fig. 4). 



The gonadal condition of translocated nearshore males 

 (Fig. 2F) improved in relation to the gonadal condition of 

 resident nearshore males (Fig. 2D). There were significant 

 differences in gonadal maturity between translocated 

 nearshore and resident nearshore males during both the 

 summer and fall (Table 5). Almost 80% of the translocated 

 nearshore males were ripe during the summer, whereas 

 about half of the resident nearshore males were incapable 

 of reproducing (Fig. 5). By fall, most translocated near- 

 shore males were still capable of reproduction, whereas 

 none of the resident nearshore males were (Fig. 5). There 

 were also significant differences in the percentage of 

 gametogenic tissue between resident nearshore and 

 translocated nearshore males during the summer and 

 fall (Table 5). During the summer, the gonads of most 

 of the resident nearshore males contained <25% game- 

 togenic tissue, whereas translocated nearshore males 

 were divided equally among the four gametogenic tissue 

 categories (Fig. 6). During the fall, the gonads of most of 

 the resident nearshore males still had <25% gametogenic 

 tissue; however, most translocated nearshore males had 

 developed >50'/r of the gonad (Fig. 6). 



Discussion 



In the nearshore region of the Florida Keys, adult queen 

 conch had severe deficiencies in reproductive behavior and 

 gonadal development. Histological examinations of resi- 



Table 5 



Probabilities from Fisher's exact test of differences in 

 gonadal maturity and the percentage of gametogenic 

 tissue between resident nearshore and translocated near- 

 shore conch by sex and season, n represents the total 

 number of observations. Asterisks (*) indicate that the 

 test was statistically significant. 



Females 



Males 



Gonadal maturity 

 Summer 

 Fall 



7o gametogenic tissue 

 Summer 

 Fall 



26 0.019* 



23 <0.001* 



26 0.130 



23 0.038* 



24 

 10 



0.045* 

 0.033* 



24 0.014* 

 10 0.033* 



dent nearshore conch revealed that most were incapable 

 of reproducing, whereas resident offshore conch exhibited 

 a normal reproductive cycle (as described by Egan, 1985, 

 and Stoner et al., 1992). Furthermore, our results suggest 

 that female conch may be more sensitive to the nega- 

 tive effects of nearshore conditions than male conch. For 

 example, during the spring and summer, some resident 

 nearshore males were ripe (although their reproductive 

 output would have been severely reduced because of a low 

 percentage of gametogenic tissue), whereas the gonads of 



