The Giant Clam :: essays research papers

The giant clam is known as a let down dwellingmollusk. The domestication factor has become of over commodious importance to theIndo-Pacific peoples. Mainly in the area of their diet. These huge clamsare huge targets for fishermen and can be found easily. With the crystal watercomplection of the reef waters they live in makes them even easier to be spottedby the fishermen an by poachers. The people of this region feast every partof the flesh of the animal. They either dry, cook, or eat them raw. InTaiwan there has been a large illeagal industry of selling these huge clams.With a demand of somewhere around 100 tons of the meat a year that isworth around $7.50-$21.25 a kilogram at the dockside of Taiwan. It isbeing gravely poached by foreigners and the population of the giant clamis decreasing. The reefs that they live on are also being severely damagedand destroyed in large amounts. The giant clam has been eliminated fromthe areas of Indonesia and the Phillippines. The species Tri dacnid gigas andthe Tridacnid derasa are the most heavily hunted species. Tridacnid gigasare the largest of the giant clams. They grow to around a meter in lengthand enumerate around 300 kilograms. These particular clams are hermaphroditeswhich reach sexual maturity at around five years of age. They spray outlarge numbers of their eggs and sperm into the seawater which then meetto form a free floating larvae. A large Tridacnid gigas has the abilityto release hundreds of millions of microscopical eggs in a single day, whichmakes it one of the most fertile marine invertebrates. However most of thefree floating larvae do not pull round during their one week planktonic period.The ones that survive settle on a patch of hard reef by means of a stickybyssal go and orient their fleshy mantles towards the sun. Theycontinue to grow their at a rate of around five to ten centimeters a year.But they are not arctic from other reef predators until they are around2.5 years old, which makes this large species hard to find.