“I Is Da Conch” & Here’s Why

Nobody wants to be considered a conch. Yet, here I am standing at a whopping 155cm and one of the biggest conchs of all time, but here’s the thing, you probably are too!

In the Bahamas if someone calls or considers you a conch, they are basically saying that you are a push over and for the most part senseless.

For my non-Caribbean readers, the queen conch is a large marine snail that lives in shallow, warm waters on coral reefs or sea grass beds. A queen conch can reach up to 12 inches in length and can live for up to 40 years. Its shell grows as the mollusk grows, forming into a spiral shape with a glossy pink or orange interior. It is an edible delicacy and its shell can be used to make jewelry.

Although deeply loved by many, the queen conch aka Strombus gigas has recently been taken out of context from its warm, crystal-clear, blue oasis and hyped up to mean something else in pop culture.

This year has been off to an interesting start. Call me crazy but “I is da conch.” Let me explain.

One thing life will teach you is that if you want to make it in anything, you can’t be easily shaken and give up on your purpose. The conch like most organisms are adept in self-preservation and have features that enable them to protect themselves from predators or adverse circumstances in their environment. For the queen conch it is their exquisite, microarchitectural, tough, pink shell.

Studies have examined the fracture mechanisms of the shell of the queen conch, performing micromechanical analyses on shells to see what was responsible for their resistance to catastrophic fracture (Kamat et al.2004). The shell of the queen conch can resist fracture a hundred to a thousand times better than aragonite, the mineral that makes up ninety-nine percent of its shell (Gorman 2000). The study found that the structure of the shell was designed to allow inherent cracks to reach a certain point, called the ACK limit, without resulting in a catastrophic failure (Kamat et al.2004). The ACK limit, or Aveston-Cooper-Kelly limit, is a point where all ligaments that bridge cracks remain in place as the crack grows, allowing the shell to remain in one piece despite the presence of cracks (Kamat et al.2004).

With all that being said, conchs are incredible! They might experience some hardships that challenge them and in fact leave them with cracks but ultimately, they are not broken into pieces. I don’t know about you but that is an admirable quality.

Imagine if one small crack dismantled the entire shell – the conch would be easily accessible to its predators and probably won’t have a very long-life span. I think this idea can be extrapolated from the conch and applied to us. We can’t let every little crack or mishap in our lives take us out. We have so much to offer and if we give up we put our purposes on the line. Despite, the obstacles we may face we have to be resilient and steadfast.

Additionally, the conch’s shell thickens throughout its life. Whew, the character development!

The cracks build character! These fissures don’t completely destroy the shell, in fact the shell over time will continue to become thicker. Our cracks are a part of our story. They help us become better human beings. We become stronger, we become wiser, we become overcomers.

The conch is an amazing creature and I think there is so much we can learn from them and apply to our lives. So, the next time someone calls you a conch gladly accept, because your remarkable strength, resilience and splendor has been on display and has been admired.

A weathered conch shell that I found washed up on shore.

References

Gorman, J. (2000). Conch yields clues for future materials. Science News 158: 6

Kamat, S., H. Kessler, R. Ballarini, M. Nassirou and A. Heuer. (2004). Fracture mechanisms of the Strombus gigas conch shell: II-micromechanics analyses of multiple cracking and large-scale crack bridging. Acta Materialia 52: 2395-2406

Kamat, S., X. Su, R. Ballarini and A. Heuer. (2000). Structural basis for the fracture toughness of the shell of the conch Strombus gigas. Nature 405: 1036-1040