![]() ![]() Tagging methods utilized for larval origin confirmation build on methods developed in the NCCOS funded Oyster Marking Methodology Study. ![]() This project is in support of a request from the NOAA Restoration Center to investigate alternative oyster restoration strategies. Although settlement results are promising, additional studies are warranted to investigate the scalability and applicability for large scale oyster restoration and aquaculture. A replicate experiment is currently under way, with early results being even more encouraging than the July deployment. Shell bags near the center of each oyster reef, where the larvae were deployed, produced far more spat than bags further from the center. Shell bag reefs constructed and deployed to form temporary research reefs. The shell bags were recovered a week later and moved ashore to flow-through holding tanks so any spat could be counted and checked for a calcein tag.ĭid the research team find any marked spat? Yes! Continued analysis is under way, but early estimates show that the experiment produced thousands of oyster spat. ![]() Divers released calcein-tagged oyster larvae onto all three shell bag reefs. To test the calcein dye technique, NCCOS scientists deployed three sets of 32 shell bags in mid-July 2019 onto a Chesapeake Bay oyster sanctuary adjacent to Cooperative Oxford Laboratory, in Oxford, Maryland. Tagging of the shell will allow aquaculturists, health officials, and enforcement agencies the ability to positively re-identify marked oysters. Not only will this technology support oyster restoration strategies, but it also has implications for oyster poachers. This calcein dye “tag” will glow under special light, and can persist for several months as the larvae settles and grows into a juvenile oyster. The dye, an Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) in the Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership (AADAP) program, acts as a tag once laid down in the oyster shell. NCCOS scientist Jason Spires recently developed a mechanism to mark late stage oyster larvae by placing them in a calcein (fluorescent dye) bath prior to release. One challenge of this new method is determining whether the spat (juvenile oysters) settling on the open water reef are actually the result of the released larvae, or if they are from naturally occurring larvae in the water column. Fluorescing spat with calcein marker confirm spat found are from the tagged larvae released directly into water column. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |