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Three CAMBio researchers presented their findings
at the 100th Centenary Meeting of the National Shellfisheries
Association in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A in April 2008.
This prestigious U.S. conference attended by 425 researchers and
members of the shellfish industry is held annually in different
locations and this year it was decided to hold it back in its
birthplace, in the city of Providence. Dr. John Slater, CAMBio
Principal Investigator presented an overview of his research results
after 25 years working with king scallops in Mulroy Bay, County
Donegal. Although it is a long way from the sheltered waters of
Mulroy Bay to Rhode Island, there are many similarities between
the behaviour of bay scallops and the native scallop, Pecten maximus.
It was particularly appropriate that at an event to celebrate
a century of shellfish research, the results from this most important
site for scallop spat collection in Ireland, collected for over
a quarter of a century should be given consideration.
Susan Heaney, CAMBio postgraduate researcher presented
results on the development of fluorescence in-situ hybridisation
techniques for shellfish larval identification. Morphological
identification of larvae using features such as shape, colour,
length-height relationship and umbo type, though possible with
some species, is both difficult and time consuming and as a result
only a very few studies of larval bivalves in their natural habitat
have been undertaken. Application of a FISH technique would allow
the tracking of larvae as they drift from their site of origin
to their final settlement site. Given that the shellfish industry
in Ireland is now worth over € 50 million per annum and that
one of the major bottlenecks to its continued growth and expansion
is the availability of adequate supplies of seed, knowing where
to get more raw materials would be particularly advantageous for
Irish fishermen. Many of those present in the audience recognised
the value of such a technique not only for shellfish species in
Ireland, but for the many other shellfish produced in the USA.
The final contribution from the CAMBio team
came from Aaron Maloy, a researcher who joined the Letterkenny
team following work on juvenile oyster disease at the University
of Maine. Aaron has presented at this prestigious national event
on three occasions in the past. Though his postgraduate research
has been underway for only a year, Aaron presented results on
the DNA fingerprinting of extracts from the guts of shellfish,
the objective being to determine exactly what the different species
of shellfish eat in the wild. Such information would enable diets
to be tailor-made for each species in hatcheries worldwide and
like Susan’s project may lead to advances in the supply
of seed shellfish for the fishing industry. For many years, most
scientists believed that adult shellfish consumed only tiny microscopic
phytoplankton; however, Aaron’s early results have already
demonstrated that their diet is much more varied than once imagined.
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