Scientists, environmental activists, and government officials warn that the Bahamas’ conch population is decreasing because of overfishing. The conch is a kind of marine creature with a shell. It is important to Bahamians’ diet and economy. Tereha Davis's family has fished for conch around the Bahamas for five generations. Davis, who is 49 years old, remembers when she could walk into the water and pick up the marine snails from the seabed. But in recent years, Davis and conch fishers like her have had to go farther from shore to find conch. Sometimes it is as far as 48 kilometers. “When I was a child, we never had to go that far to get conch,” said Davis, speaking at a Freeport market where she sold her catch. “Without conch, what are we supposed to do?”

科学家、环保活动家和政府官员警告说，由于过度捕捞，巴哈马的海螺数量正在减少。海螺是一种有壳的海洋生物。它对巴哈马人的饮食和经济很重要。特蕾哈·戴维斯 (Tereha Davis) 的家人世代在巴哈马群岛捕捞海螺已有五代人的历史。 49 岁的戴维斯还记得她什么时候可以走进水里，从海底捡起海螺。但近年来，戴维斯和像她这样的海螺渔民不得不到离岸更远的地方寻找海螺。有时远达48公里。 “当我还是个孩子的时候，我们从来不需要走那么远的路才能买到海螺，”戴维斯在自由港的一个市场上说，她在那里出售她捕获的海螺。 “没有海螺，我们怎么办？”

The conch is widely recognized as the national dish of the Bahamas. Queen conch is the most important food species and can live for 30 years. Conch can be very costly in the U.S. and other places. But it is so common in the Bahamas that it can often be found in meals costing less than $10. That is less than the price of many meats on the island. One study from 2021 said nearly two-fifths of the population in rural parts of the Bahamas eats conch weekly. The country of about 400,000 is home to 9,000 conch fishers - around two percent of the population. A study published in Fisheries Management and Ecology said this number appears to be holding steady even as conches decrease in number. The meat of the conch is worth millions of dollars per year, and it also helps increase tourism to the islands.

海螺被广泛认为是巴哈马的国菜。皇后海螺是最重要的食用品种，寿命可达 30 年。海螺在美国和其他地方可能非常昂贵。但它在巴哈马非常普遍，经常可以在不到 10 美元的餐食中找到它。这低于岛上许多肉类的价格。 2021 年的一项研究表明，巴哈马农村地区近五分之二的人口每周都吃海螺。这个拥有约 400,000 人口的国家拥有 9,000 名海螺渔民，约占总人口的 2%。发表在渔业管理和生态学上的一项研究表明，即使海螺数量减少，这个数字似乎也保持稳定。海螺的肉每年价值数百万美元，也有助于增加岛上的旅游业。

Divers usually catch the conch by hand. They often use simple equipment such as a mask, snorkel and flippers. Sometimes divers can take home as many as 1,000 conches in a single trip. Many divers fish for other species too, such as snapper, but they identify themselves as conch fishers first. And for many, fishing is both a family tradition and a path to middle class life on the islands, where the cost of living is higher than in the U.S.

潜水员通常用手捕捉海螺。他们通常使用简单的设备，例如面罩、通气管和脚蹼。有时，潜水员一次可以带回多达 1,000 个海螺。许多潜水员也捕捞其他物种，例如鲷鱼，但他们首先认定自己是海螺渔民。对于许多人来说，捕鱼既是一种家庭传统，也是通往岛上中产阶级生活的途径，那里的生活成本高于美国。

Conch is one example of the threat overfishing presents to traditional foods around the world. Similar problems are seen in Senegal, where overfishing has taken away white grouper. The fish has long been the basis for the national dish of thieboudienne. Overfishing has also caused problems in the Philippines, where small fish supplies such as sardines that are used in kinilaw, a raw dish, have decreased. Overfishing has hurt once numerous species. That means some culturally important foods are disappearing.

海螺是过度捕捞对世界各地传统食品造成威胁的例子之一。塞内加尔也出现了类似的问题，过度捕捞已经夺走了白石斑鱼。长期以来，这种鱼一直是 Thieboudienne 国菜的基础。过度捕捞也在菲律宾造成了问题，那里的小鱼供应减少了，例如用于生菜 kinilaw 的沙丁鱼。过度捕捞曾经伤害过无数物种。这意味着一些具有重要文化意义的食物正在消失。

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stated that more than a third of the world’s fish stocks are overfished. The FAO added that the rate of unsustainable fishing is rising. The loss of such foods risks the availability of protein and iron in people’s diets in poor countries, said Richard Wilk, of Indiana University’s Department of Anthropology. Wilk said nations that fail to control overfishing risk repeating the mistakes of countries such as Japan. The Japanese herring fishery collapsed in the middle of the 20th century. Wilks said the collapse cost jobs, reduced availability of a traditional wedding food, and left the country dependent on foreign supplies.

联合国粮食及农业组织 (FAO) 表示，世界上超过三分之一的鱼类资源被过度捕捞。粮农组织补充说，不可持续的捕鱼率正在上升。印第安纳大学人类学系的理查德威尔克说，这些食物的流失会危及贫穷国家人们饮食中蛋白质和铁的可用性。威尔克说，未能控制过度捕捞的国家有可能重蹈日本等国家的覆辙。日本的鲱鱼渔业在 20 世纪中叶崩溃。威尔克斯说，倒塌导致工作岗位减少，传统婚礼食品的供应减少，并使该国依赖外国供应。