FWS Employee With Conch Shell Photo Gallery

December 2008

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KEY DEER REFUGE FWS EMPLOYEE WITH CONCH SHELLS. Service employees work to protect the National Wildlife Refuge System, a unique and diverse network of over 91 million acres of lands and waters in the United States. This System spans the continent from the icy north coast of Alaska to the balmy Florida Keys. Conch shells form part of the ecosystem at Florida's Key Deer Refuge that helped earn this site protection as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced September 29, 2003, that the United States will prohibit the importation of queen conch, its meat, shells, and other products from three Caribbean countries– Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti– in support of an international effort to help stem continued and significant declines in this species. The ban implements restrictions in the United States that have been called for globally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES.