Along the east coast of the United States there are a plethora of shellfish farms that produce around $170M in shellfish products such as oysters, scallops, and various species of clams. Most of these earnings are from oysters and hard clams. This can be detrimental since having a very narrow selection of shellfish may result in a collapse in the event of a disease outbreak, climate change, and cause fluctuations in the market. It’s in the shellfish industry’s best interest to diversify the market in order to address these concerns. A viable candidate would be the razor clam. Razor clams, Ensis leei can be found all throughout the northeast of the United States, and it is a valuable crop for shellfish farmers all over that region, that can reach up to $6/lb. There have been attempts in the past to lay down the foundation of a razor clam industry by proposing to condition, spawn, settle, and develop methods to successfully establish nursery rearing for a large sample of post-set razor clam spat. The purpose of this research is to target and resolve known bottlenecks in the early development stage. Earlier research has pointed out that sediment type may be a factor in decreasing mortality rates in post set razor clams.
Three raceways were partitioned into three separate sections, and each section housed a type of sediment. The tested sediments were fine, coarse, and mixed sand. Mixed sand was comprised of fine sand and natural mud harvested from Lowes Cove. Once the sediment in the tank was filled and seawater was added, the tanks were left untouched for two weeks in order to promote a natural microbiome.
During this time, broodstock was spawned and larvae were introduced into the nursery. After 14 days settlement occurred and the larvae were moved from the upwellers to the experimental sediment tanks. Then spat was then distributed into each partition. We allowed two weeks to pass before collecting the first core sample, which was used to identify the health, and density of the recently settled clams.