Aquaculture potential of the basket cockle (Clinocardium nuttallii). Part 1: Effects of stocking density on first year grow-out performance in intertidal and off-bottom suspended culture.

摘要

The basket cockle (Clinocardium nuttallii) is a candidate species for aquaculture in the northeast Pacific. The aim of the current research was to assess the feasibility of C. nuttallii grow-out, with an emphasis on growth performance and qualities affecting product marketability. In this article, we investigated the combined effects of culture mode (intertidal and off-bottom suspended culture) and initial stocking density (1500, 3000, 10 500 and 21 000 ind m-2) on C. nuttallii survival and growth during the first year of grow-out (May through October). In intertidal culture, cockles exhibited low survival and poor growth rates. In suspended culture, survival was consistently high (>96%) at all stocking densities tested; growth and condition parameters had the highest values at 1500 and 3000 ind m-2. The edible portion (meat yield) exceeded 40% of the whole wet weight at all stocking densities, occurrences of fouled and deformed cockles were <1% and no commensal species were observed. Depending on the minimum harvestable size and stocking density chosen, harvestable proportions constituted from 1.1% to 15.2% by October of the first grow-out year in the suspended system. The effects of stocking density and depth on second year grow-out performance of C. nuttallii are reported in a companion paper (Dunham et al. in this issue).