Field and Laboratory Trials to Examine Growth and Survival of a New Bivalve Culture Candidate in Maine: Arctic surfclams, Mactromeris polynyma
Principal Investigator: Brian Beal (UMM)
Partners: Dianne Tilton (Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research & Education)
Abstract: Thanks to funding over the past five years from the National Science Foundation, MEIF-SCI, and USDA’s SBIR program, Arctic surfclams, Mactromeris polynyma, are a new culture candidate in Maine. Work has progressed on the hatchery and nursery phases of this shallow-burrowing, suspension-feeding bivalve, so that we are confident that commercial-scale production of juveniles can occur. Pilot-scale field studies, however, have revealed difficulties in bringing cultured animals from a seed size (6-10 mm in shell length, SL) to a commercial size (40-50 mm SL). The main problem is overcoming predation on juvenile surfclams by decapod crustaceans – lobsters, rock crabs, and green crabs. The proposed work will be conducted in eastern Maine with our partner, the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education. The work will focus on a variety of techniques to minimize the effectiveness of these crustaceans using field and laboratory experiments to examine the interactive effects of numerous factors (e.g., initial surfclam size; type and aperture size of protective netting; planting location and intertidal height; and, sediment type) over the summer and fall of 2017, and spring of 2018. Two undergraduate students from the University of Maine at Machias (junior or senior standing in the Marine Biology program) will participate in the research with the goal of producing results that can be presented in a research public forum similar to the SEA fellows program from 2016 as well as at least one manuscript that can be submitted to a peer-review journal for publication.