Guest commentary: North Carolina's collaborative shellfish strategy includes public education efforts showcasing how oysters can be a catalyst for a resilient future, where people and ecosystems thrive.
Sea cucumbers are a popular luxury and delicacy food items in Asian markets. These echinoderms possess a wide range of bioactive substances that can be used to produce pharmaceutical products. Recent depletion of natural populations of sea cucumbers requires involving new objects both in commercial harvesting and aquaculture. The northern sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa is the most abundant sea cucumber in the Barents Sea. In this paper, we summarized literature data on the biology of this polar species to evaluate its fishery and aquaculture potential in the area. This eurythermic sea cucumber is typically occurs at 20–100 m depth. Cucumaria mainly colonize rocky or pebbly bottoms. Their main food items are detritus, pellets, phytoplankton, and small planktonic crustaceans. Spawning is registered in February–May. The age of commercial specimens (body length 25–30 cm, wet weight 300–350 g) is 10 years. The most abundant stocks of C. frondosa are registered in the central and so
A VIMS researcher deploys a tray of oysters. (WYDaily/Courtesy of VIMS)
PENINSULA/GLOUCESTER The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has again partnered with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to help support ongoing efforts to restore oyster beds on private shellfish grounds in the state’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay.
In 2011, VIMS, NRCS and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission embarked on a journey to help bring back native oysters lost to over-harvesting, disease and degraded habitat. Beds that lay dormant for decades are now being returned to service to support spat-on-shell production and a growing population of the bivalves, fish and other wildlife.