Dr. Tawainga Katsvairo will present on the Clam hybridization work being done in conjunction with Southeastern Seaproducts at the Aquaculture America conference. This trade show is the largest aquaculture trade show in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest in the world with nearly 200 booths.

The unique project is conducted by Southeastern Seaproducts and Arc Horizon.

The northern hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, supports an important aquaculture industry along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. In Florida, the Gulf of Mexico’s advantageous warm waters enable fast growth rates where clams reach maturity in 18 months compared to 2.5 years in Northern states. Along with M. mercenaria’s relatively long shelf life, it is the choice commercial clam for the Gulf of Mexico. However, M. mercenaria is not as adapted to the prolonged hot summer months, which can result in mortalities of 50% or more of clams reaching market size, resulting in huge losses that reduce growers’ revenue.

M. campechiensis, the southern quahog, is better suited for warmer water temperatures and is exempt from the size rule in most Northern states. However, M. campechiensis has a short shelf life and quickly gapes in refrigerated storage, limiting its commercial use as a shellstock product.

This work leverages research conducted from the 1960s through the 2000s by universities in Florida which produced viable hybrids with improved growth and survival traits. While the hybrids were never adopted by industry because of short shelf life, new postharvest technologies unavailable then, can increase the shelf life of the hybrids facilitating adoption of hybrids by industry. We are evaluating post-harvest technologies developed by Southeastern Seaproducts Inc., among them the “modified atmosphere process”, a complex and state of the art process to increase the shelf life of clams and improve product quality.

This work is funded through a NOAA grant. Details of the conference are available at https://www.was.org/meeting