All Conch Shell's GONE :(

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:47 am

From the Brown Bay Trail - you know, the beautiful conch lined pathway that tells you you have arrived

Not sure who is responsible but I'm sooooo sad

Pia

lazylane · Post by **lazylane** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:49 am

how horrible! That trail is on my list for our December trip! Who would do such a thing??

MarianneS · Post by **MarianneS** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:52 am

Are the conch shells gone or the path taken apart? I will be there in Jan and would gladly reconstruct the shells. It was such a wonderful sight.

MarianneS · Post by **MarianneS** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:52 am

Are the conch shells gone or the path taken apart? I will be there in Jan and would gladly reconstruct the shells. It was such a wonderful sight.

MarianneS · Post by **MarianneS** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:53 am

Are the conch shells gone or the path taken apart? I will be there in Jan and would gladly reconstruct the shells. It was such a wonderful sight.

Bob & Anita · Post by **Bob & Anita** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:18 pm

That is very sad.

sherban · Post by **sherban** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:35 pm

They were there in June....anyone else see them after that in 2008?...

California Girl · Post by **California Girl** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:41 pm

I never got there, but that is SO sad! Who would do that?? A tourist could never carry all those home!

jayseadee · Post by **jayseadee** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:20 pm

Was it Omar??

MarkR · Post by **MarkR** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:43 pm

Is there some strange black market for conch shells?

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:12 pm

They were there at the beginning of the week.

The National Park Service was on the trail cleaning it up and removing all trash. Brown Bay itself has a high reputation for poaching conch and the Park Service has been doing everything it can to stop that - poachers were there just last week.

Our guess (and again it's only a guess) is that in an effort to remove signs that the bay has conch, they removed all signs of them in their clean up effort as they are all gone - the old, broken, dirty, small, large, on the path and on the beach - they are all gone.

I would like to think they did not do it as they have known forever that they are there, but I can't think of who else would have removed them - if it was just the "pretty" one's I would blame someone wanting to take them home or to their construction site to put in a rock wall or something, but they are all gone - from inside the bushes - everywhere

Pia

sherban · Post by **sherban** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:50 pm

Pia wrote:They were there at the beginning of the week.

....Our guess (and again it's only a guess) is that in an effort to remove signs that the bay has conch, they removed all signs of them in their clean up effort as they are all gone - the old, broken, dirty, small, large, on the path and on the beach - they are all gone...
Pia

Pia- Let us know if you find out what happened, that's a shame.

Exit Zero · Post by **Exit Zero** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:00 pm

Sounds like the NPS - as if the conch poachers don't know where the conch are w/o blatant signs.
It would not surprise me though that they ended up at a villa construction site - except for the thoroughness of the clean up - also I thought the NPS rules are that you cannot remove shells from the National Park.

Cindy in pa · Post by **Cindy in pa** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:33 am

Does anyone think that possible the high rains during the hurricane could have washed them back into the bay? Just a thought.

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:53 am

No, hubby hikes it everyday (even the day after Omar when it was still raining) and they were all there then and they were there at the beginning of last week. The reason we are not sure of the exact day they were gone is Cocui is limping and we have to cut here exercise down for 7 days so we are doing a "mini" hike

Pia

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