Aquaculture of Marine Molluscs

Worldwide, one of the largest yields in marine aquaculture for an individual species is from the Pacific cupped oyster, Crassostrea gigas. Global oyster production is over 4 million metric tonnes grown per year.

Photo  and diagram of a larval stage of the Pacific oyster, C. gigas. Our work with these larval forms includes:
1.  Studies of nutrient uptake from seawater by bacteria-free (“axenic”) larvae (Manahan, 1989; 1990)
2.  Studies of the nutritional requirements of larvae (Welborn and Manahan, 1995)
3.  The physiological bases of growth and hybrid vigor (Pace et al., 2006; Meyer and Manahan, 2010).

This photo shows the veliger-stage larva of the red abalone, Haliotis rufescens. This larval form was raised in the laboratory from a fertilized egg. These larvae are non-feeding during development.

We have investigated the energy metabolism of this species during larval development (Jaeckle & Manahan, 1989; Moran and Manahan, 2003) and during metamorphosis (Shilling et al., 1996).