KEY WEST — Making music with a conch (pronounced "konk") shell might seem unusual, but several dozen people tried it during the weekend's annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest in the Florida Keys.

New Year’s Eve is a special time for Key West, with tens of thousands of people gathering in downtown each year to witness ...

Lighthearted takeoffs on the traditional ball drop in New York’s Times Square are to highlight New Year’s Eve in Key West, ...

Ben Daughtry, left, president of Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters, celebrates the “groundhog” conch living at the attraction on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Marathon, Fla. during a whimsical response to ...

Contemporary Key West is full of fascinating people and quirky characters. Everyone, it seems, has a story. There’s the man ...

Move over, Punxsutawney Phil: There’s a new contender in the weather forecasting arena — the Key West conch. Since 1886, Phil has been the main attraction of the annual Groundhog Day celebration at ...

If you were lucky to be born in the Florida Keys and Key West, you may call yourself a Conch. As a Conch, you are part of a close-knit community of environmentalists, conservationists, divers, and ...

Scientist Gabriel Delgado of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute brings two Queen conchs to the surface near the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys. The conchs will be tagged and relocated ...

They say Key West is for pirates, parrots and poets. I didn’t see any of those on a recent visit, but the phrase captures the island’s whimsical, creative and laid-back spirit. Like Las Vegas or New ...

In shallow water not far from the Florida Keys’ famed Seven Mile Bridge, a herd of the state’s flamboyantly pink queen conchs is struggling to survive. Warming seas and wild swings in temperature have ...

This article is part of The State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. This story, by Jenny Staletovich, was published in collaboration ...