Development of Optimal Seeding Techniques and Guidelines for the Surveillance, Detection and Prevention of Diseases Relevant to the Culture of Softshell Clam (Mya arenaria)

Description

Various techniques have been developed to enhance wild populations of Mya arenaria through cultivation. The impacts of predation, timing of planting of juvenile seed, size of seed, substrate type, density and diseases such as haemic neoplasia, have been found to be significant factors in the survival success of juvenile M. arenaria.

The Southwestern New Brunswick Clam Resource Committee (CRC) has acquired a R&D occupational permit in Lepreau Harbour, New Brunswick where a decline in soft shell clam abundance has been observed over the past 15 years. Eastern Charlotte Waterways Inc. chairs the CRC and is currently in the second year of establishing techniques for the culture and enhancement of softshell clam.

The objectives of this study are:

• to determine optimal conditions (size, substrate type and manipulation and density) for planting 300,000 hatchery spat currently over-wintering in cages moored at the St. Andrews Biological Station lease site.
• to determine if disease is prevalent in the existing natural population and estimate the potential impact it may have as a critical component of implementation of culture techniques.

Program Name

Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program (ACRDP)

Year(s)

2005 - 2007

Ecoregion(s)

Atlantic: Gulf of Maine, Scotian Shelf

Principal Investigator(s)

Shawn Robinson
Email: Shawn.Robinson@dfo-mpo.gc.ca