Polyculture of Abalone and Algae in the Sea

摘要

The feasibility of culturing red abalones (Haliotis rufescens) and their food, Macrocystis (kelp), together in the ocean as an alternative to land-based tank culture was tested. Compared was the growth of juvenile red abalones fed kelp in three ocean grow-out containers: the barrel, the traditional container design, and the 'box' and 'tube,' two novel container designs. The abalones grew faster in both the boxes and tubes than in the barrels. Survivorship was high in all containers. The results of these preliminary experiments, conducted in greenhouse aquaria and in the ocean, confirmed that Macrocystis is a high quality food for red abalones and demonstrated that natural populations of kelp could be initiated or augmented at ocean farm sites by dispersing various artificial substrates seeded with kelp spores in the laboratory.