Research in coastal habitats

• Introduction
• Surf clams and ocean quahogs
• Offshore cephalopods

Introduction

Mollusc species are important ecological components of shallow water communities at all latitudes. The VIMS Molluscan Ecology Program has active research programs examining a variety of molluscan species in coastal habitats in the mid Atlantic Region off the east coast of the United States.

Surf clams and ocean quahogs

The surf clam, Spisula solidissima, and the ocean quahog, Arctica islandica, support a significant fishery in the mid Atlantic region with ex-vessel values of approximately $50 million per year. Surf clams may grow to be large animals and live to an age of approximately 15 years. They occupy a latitudinal range from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras and a bathymetric range that is inshore of summer thermocline in that region. Adriana Picariello examined the effects of coastal water temperatures on the ecology and growth rates of Atlantic surf clam (Spisula solidissima) populations in the Mid-Atlantic Bight for her VIMS/SMS M.S. thesis project.

By contrast, ocean quahogs live to be very old (up to 200 years), have an Arctic Boreal distribution (north and across the Atlantic past Iceland to Northern Europe and the White Sea), and occur in the cold pool of water beneath the seasonal thermocline in the mid Atlantic region. In addition to a continuing program on the biology of these species we have, in collaboration with Dr. Eric Powell at Rutgers University, investigators from the National Marine Fisheries Service at Woods Hole, and the commercial fishing industry, been involved since 1997 in a program to develop improved stock assessment techniques for these commercially valuable species.

Related publications

Lutz et al. 1981.
Mann, R. 1982.
Mann, R. and C. Wolf, 1983.
Powell, E. and R. Mann. 2005.
Picariello, A. 2006.