Macaronesian topshell
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The Macaronesian burgado — a small intertidal topshell that carries a legal minimum size, and one of the very few animals named independently by both a Canary government table and a Madeiran catch survey.
Safety: contamination and toxins in the catch — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies here.
Contamination and toxins in the catch — Can cause serious injury or death
A grazing intertidal mollusc concentrates marine biotoxins and microbiological contamination out of the water around it. Marine biotoxins are not destroyed by cooking and no visual, smell or taste test will detect them, and gathering areas are opened and closed on monitoring a gatherer cannot see.
What reduces it: Check the current status of the specific area with the authority that monitors it before eating anything gathered from it.
Catching Macaronesian topshell
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Where
- 6 places FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: established quarry · From the shore
*Phorcus sauciatus* (F. C. L. Koch, 1845) is a small trochid topshell of Macaronesian and north-west African intertidal rock. In the Canaries it is the `burgado macho`, gathered alongside the limpets and regulated with them.
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH A RECORD IS THE CORROBORATION. The Canary fisheries directorate names it in its shore-gathering table and sets a minimum size for it. The peer-reviewed Madeira shore-angling survey names it too, independently, as one of the intertidal animals its anglers collect — putting it at 0.10% of the archipelago's estimated recreational catch. A government table and a creel survey nine hundred kilometres apart, both naming the same small snail, is much stronger evidence that this is a real fishery than either would be alone.
It is not the common periwinkle, *Littorina littorea* — a northern European animal, a different family, and a different shell entirely. Anybody matching a Macaronesian burgado to that one is measuring against nothing.
A topshell is a grazer like a limpet but mobile: it moves over the rock rasping algal film, retreats into crevices and under weed as the tide falls, and can be gathered by hand without tools — which is exactly why it is regulated. An animal that requires no equipment and no skill is one whose population is limited only by how many people want it.
The Canary closure runs with the limpets: roughly five winter months on every island, and a further summer period on Fuerteventura.
How it is caught
Where Macaronesian topshell is documented
Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.
Canary Islands
6 documented places
Gran Canaria
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
Fuerteventura
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
La Palma
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
La Gomera
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
El Hierro
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
La Graciosa
Island
Established quarry
From the shore
What these strengths mean
- Established quarry
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Identification
No photograph of Macaronesian topshell has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Phorcus sauciatus
- Family
- Trochidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Regions
- Western Europe, West Africa, North Africa
- A small, solid, conical spiral shell — a topshell, not a periwinkle: the outline is a broad cone rather than a rounded turban.
- Patterned with oblique dark streaks or flecks on a paler ground, worn smooth at the apex in older animals.
- A nacreous, pearly interior, which is the family character and the quickest way to separate a topshell from a winkle in the hand.
- The Canary directorate sets a minimum shell size for it; the figure is the authority's to state.
- NOT the common periwinkle, Littorina littorea, a northern European animal of a different family with a dull, non-nacreous interior.
Size
- Typical
- 15–25 mm shell height
- Large
- Over 28 mm
Exceptional: The minimum published by the Canary fisheries directorate sits at the bottom of the ordinary adult range, which is itself a documented statement about how small the animals being taken had become.
Lifecycle and reproduction
Planktonic larvae settle onto intertidal rock and the animal grazes there for life, moving over a small area rather than migrating. It is long-lived for its size and slow-growing, which is the combination that makes a hand-gathered shore animal easy to overharvest.
Broadcast spawning into the water, with the reproductive season concentrated in the warmer part of the year across the genus in Macaronesia — which is worth noting against a closure timed principally around the limpets it is gathered with.
Feeding and senses
Rasps microalgal film and biofilm off intertidal rock with a radula, moving over the surface while wetted and retreating into crevices, under weed and into shade as the tide falls and the rock dries.
Chemoreception and simple light sensing, with a strong withdrawal response into the shell on contact. It relies on crevices and shade rather than on detecting a gatherer.
Through the year
Present and grazing year-round; its position on the rock follows the tide and the drying of the surface rather than the season. The Canary winter closure, and the further Fuerteventura summer closure, are the seasonal facts that govern whether it may be taken — and their dates belong to the authority rather than to this page.
Distribution
Macaronesia and the adjacent north-east Atlantic: recorded from the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores and along north-west Africa and south-west Iberia, on intertidal rock. Regulated across the Canary Islands and recorded by name in a Madeiran shore-angling catch survey.
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
Gathered by hand for the table and used as BAIT, which is the angling significance that matters — a shore angler in Macaronesia collecting burgados off the rock beside their stance is fishing and gathering in one act, and the Madeiran survey records exactly that pattern, with 72.3% of its anglers using previously caught bait including snails.
Handling and returning
Nothing here can hurt a hand. The animal withdraws behind a hard operculum and is easily lifted intact, which is precisely why a minimum size and a closed season are the only things standing between it and a cleared shore. Before eating anything gathered here, ask the local food safety or environmental health authority about the specific area — a different body from the fisheries directorate that sets the size and the season.
Safety
Contamination and toxins in the catch is set out at the top of this page, where it cannot be missed.
Slips, trips and falls — Can cause injury needing treatment
Gathering means working slick, weeded, uneven lava at low water with eyes down and hands full.
What reduces it: Boots with grip, both hands free where possible, and somebody watching the sea rather than the rock.
Check the rules before you fish
Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.
Check with:
- Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
- Current local bylaws
- The relevant fisheries authority
- The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
- Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- WoRMS — the World Register of Marine Species — WoRMS Editorial Board, hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The accepted name, naming authority, taxonomic status and family for Phorcus sauciatus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That this animal is regulated recreational shore-gathering quarry in the Canary Islands, the Canarian common name the directorate gives it, and the existence and shape of the closed seasons it states.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Importance of recreational shore angling in the archipelago of Madeira (northeast Atlantic) — Scientia Marina (CSIC), vol. 84 no. 4, 2020 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this animal is recorded in the recreational shore-angling catch of the Madeira archipelago, at 0.10% of the estimated total by the study's own catch-composition table.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this animal is gathered — the ground, the state of tide, and the tools used.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Common periwinkle
Phorcus sauciatus (F. C. L. Koch, 1845) is a trochid — family Trochidae — with a broad conical shell and a nacreous, pearly interior. Littorina littorea is a littorinid with a rounded turban shell and a dull interior, and is a northern European animal. The nacre is the quickest separator in the hand, and the ocean is the surest one.
- WoRMS — the World Register of Marine Species — WoRMS Editorial Board, hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The accepted names, naming authorities, taxonomic status, synonymy and families that separate these animals from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Gathering winkles, whelks and limpets
The Madeiran creel survey names the sea snail Phorcus sauciatus among the intertidal animals its shore anglers collect, at 0.10% of the estimated recreational catch, and records that 72.3% of those anglers use previously caught bait including snails. An animal that needs no equipment at all is limited only by how many people want it, which is why a small snail carries a legal minimum size.
- Importance of recreational shore angling in the archipelago of Madeira (northeast Atlantic) — Scientia Marina (CSIC), vol. 84 no. 4, 2020 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That Madeiran shore anglers collect intertidal invertebrates alongside their fishing, which animals they collect, and their use of previously caught bait.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this animal is gathered and used.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Official guidance — 1 connection
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Mudflats and intertidal sandflats
A small mobile trochid grazer of Macaronesian and north-west African intertidal rock, regulated as shore-gathering quarry across the Canary Islands. Unlike a limpet it moves over the surface while wetted and retreats into crevices and shade as the rock dries.
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That this animal is regulated recreational shore-gathering quarry across the Canary Islands, and the Canarian name the directorate gives it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.