History of Conch Chowder

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Photo by Yankee Specialty Foods, Bay Shore Chowders

Conch meat was a staple food of the early settlers in the Keys, In the early 1800s, people from the Bahamas began migrating there. These immigrants were called conchs because of the sea snail they like to eat of the same name that was their staple food. By 1891, it is estimated that a third of the Key West population was Bahamian. This explains why the word conch is so much a part of the area's heritage. Natives of Key West, Florida and the Bahamas proudly call themselves conchs.

The first conchs were British sympathizers. Some accounts indicate they were given the name of conch after escaping to the Bahamas during the American Revolution and announcing that rather than go to war they'd eat conch. Another explanation indicates they were called conch because of the great quantity of conch in their diet and because they used the shell as a signaling trumpet. When Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821, Bahamians who wanted to continue the business of wrecking had to move the Keys. They brought their love of conch with them. Writer Slyvia Sunshine in her book Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes in explained the origin of the term in 1880,

"Conchs were the original English settlers of this place, who came here from New Providence and the adjacent islands of the Bahama group. "Couch" is not, as many suppose, a term of contempt, but a local distinction. When the first regiment of colonial militia was organized at Nassau, they adopted the figure of a conch-shell in gold, with a blue field, for their regimental colors, thereby declaring the protection of their natural position; from this the term is applied more particularly to those from that city. They are a temperate, frugal, industrious class of persons, accustomed for generations to procuring a living from the sea; but many of them on this island have turned their talents in other directions, controlling a large part of the commercial business of the place. The greater portion of them are engaged in wrecking, sponging, or fishing for the Havana market, many owning fine vessels, and being men of respectability, although belonging to those classes whose names, to one not acquainted with them, appear an equivalent to buccaneers or pirates."

In 1985, the harvesting of the conch was banned, and it is now illegal to take live conch in U.S. waters, where they are an endangered species, so most conch now comes from the various Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas (where it is sometimes called 'hurricane ham')