The most common variety of snail in the Gulf of Mexico is the horse snail, Fasciolaria gigantea. It is long and somewhat similar to a trumpet. The interior is yellowish, sometimes golden, and occasionally a golden pearl is found. This species is widely distributed throughout the world, and its shell was used by the Scandinavians and the first clans. When the Spanish and English first settled in the West Indies, they found a large quantity of a beautiful conch shell that was not known in the old world. This was the queen conch or great queen conch, Strombus gigantea. Large quantities were shipped to England for use in manufacturing, and the meat of the animal was found to be highly nutritious. In addition, pearls were found. The queen conch is found only within a region encompassed by the West Indies, Bermuda, and the southern coast of Florida. The outstanding characteristics of this snail are the extreme beauty of the interior of its shell and the long horny protuberances that curl on the exterior.
Queen conch often move in groups, like flocks of sheep, two hundred are often seen together near reefs. Each is equipped with two well-shaped eyes, which are located at the ends of flexible stem-like organs, with a small elephant-shaped trunk at the tip, which is the mouth. When eating, the conch expands and contracts at will. Sometimes it extends to a length of four inches. Food consists of minute animal and plant life.
Professional conch fishermen—known as “Iconics”—usually harvest conch from a boat, using a glass of water and a long pole with an iron hook on one end. While one man tends the boat, the other leans over the side, locates the conch next to the glass of water, slips the hook under the shell, and brings the animal to the surface. Some anglers prefer to dive for them. When Columbus first landed in the Bahamas, he discovered that the Indians possessed large pink pearls of a type unknown to Europeans. These were pearls made by gigantic Strom-bus. They were largely oval or elongated in shape, with round conch pearls being rare. Pink, red, white, yellow, and occasionally deep brown pearls are found; rarely a golden one. As the Bahamas and South Florida settled, these pearls appeared in London and Paris.
The largest and finest pearls found their way to the collections of crowned heads and to the princes and rajahs of India. The crown of Sweden bears a large conch pearl from Key West. Conch pearls, however, seem relatively little known and appreciated in the United States. Some time ago, the seeker for a perfect large snail pearl put it up for sale in Miami without getting a reasonable offer. New York gave the same result, but the pearl was sold to a jeweler on Bond Street in London for $10,000.
