Shell Growth and Age Determination of the Brackish Water Bivalve Corbicula Japonica in Lake Shinji, Japan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UK FISFisheries Science0919-92682004 Blackwell Science Asia Pty Ltd 704August 2004 847 Growth and age of Corbicula japonica K Oshima et al. 10.1111/j.1444-2906.2004.00847.x Original Article601610BEES SGML FISHERIES SCIENCE 2004; 70: 601–610 Shell growth and age determination of the brackish water bivalve Corbicula japonica in Lake Shinji, Japan Kazuhiro OSHIMA,1* Naoki SUZUKI,1 Mikio NAKAMURA2 AND Kazumi SAKURAMOTO1 1Department of Ocean Sciences, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Minato, Tokyo 108-8477 and 2Japan Corbicula Research Institute, Tamayu, Shimane 699-0204, Japan ABSTRACT: Shell growth and age determination of Corbicula japonica were investigated from samples collected monthly at two sites and field growth experiments from November 1999 to Novem- ber 2000 in Lake Shinji. Both specimens did not grow in winter when the water temperature was below 11∞C, but grew rapidly from spring to early summer when the water temperature rose from 15∞C to 30∞C, before further growing slowly from summer to autumn after the main breeding period. The monthly marginal growth distribution of the samples indicated that the concentric groove on the shell surface was an annual growth ring. It is concluded that the age of C. japonica in the i-ring group when the shell growth resumed in spring was i + 0.5 (i = 1, 2, · · ·), because the first true growth ring was formed at 0–2 mm in shell length, which then faded with growth. Lee’s phenomenon was observed in the age determination results, and thus the growth coefficient and the asymptotic shell length of the von Bertalanffy growth equation were not estimated from the samples. However, these parameters were estimated from the annual shell length increments of the experimental individuals, which were 0.331/year and 28.2 mm, respectively. KEY WORDS: age determination, concentric groove, Corbicula japonica, Lake Shinji, shell growth, shell length. INTRODUCTION morning; three types of protected areas are enforced, which are protected areas only during The bivalve Corbicula japonica is an important the summer, the annual protected areas and the species for inland fisheries in Japan. Corbicula permanently protected areas; the size of the clam japonica inhabits brackish lakes and estuaries dredge must be smaller than 60 cm in length and from Hokkaido to Kyusyu in Japan and is the dom- width, and 35 cm in height; the openings between inant species of benthic organisms in Lake Shinji, the flat bars of the clam dredge must be larger than which is located in the south-west of the mainland 11 mm. However, these regulations were not (Fig. 1). Fisheries for the C. japonica population in wholly determined in consideration of the ecologic Lake Shinji yield the maximum landing in Japan, characteristics of the species due to a lack of which is approximately 8000 t on average from knowledge. The fishery resource management 1991 to 2000. The landing in weight of the fisheries must be conducted on the basis of ecologic char- accounts for more than 90% of total landings in acteristics in order to establish the sustainable and this lake and its annual value of product was esti- effective exploitation of the population. mated to be approximately 3 billion yen from 1993 The Shimane Prefectural Freshwater Fisheries to 1998. The C. japonica population in Lake Shinji Experimental Station assessed the population size is harvested by dredge fishing. The fisheries, for of C. japonica in Lake Shinji 1–3 times a year from which the fishing rights are permitted for approxi- 1997 to 2001.1 However, the population dynamics mately 300 fishermen, is operated 4 days a week of the species has not been studied up to present. throughout the year. At present, the fisheries regu- Information on the age and growth of the target lations are as follows: the individual quota is 140 kg population is essential for fishery management. per day; the operation is permitted for 3 h in the The growth ring on the shell surface has been used for age determination in bivalves because it is con- 2–8 *Corresponding author: Tel: 81-3-5463-0565. sidered to be formed once a year. The growth of Fax: 81-3-5463-0565. Email: [email protected] C. japonica has been evaluated and age deter- Received 11 November 2003. Accepted 29 March 2004. mined by using the growth ring on the shell 602 FISHERIES SCIENCE K Oshima et al. autumn and six times per site in winter when fewer 133°00E N 0 10 km numbers of C. japonica were gathered, because the Lake Shinji inhabitation depth of the species in the sediment was shallow during the summer and deep in win- Lake Shinji ter.14 The sediments gathered by the sampler were sorted with a sieve of 0.5-mm square mesh. Resi- Japan 35°26N dues on the sieve were fixed with 10% neutral formalin. In the laboratory, the fixed residues N were sieved through 4-, 1- and 0.5-mm mesh sizes. The samples of C. japonica remaining on the 4- and 1-mm-mesh sieves were sorted by eye or under a stereoscopic microscope. Juveniles of Lake Shinji C. japonica remaining on the 0.5-mm-mesh sieve were separated from the sediments under the Matsue stereoscopic microscope from November 1999 to Torigasaki January 2000. However, this procedure was time- consuming and required a great deal of attention. Kimachi 0 5 km Sellmer described a method of small bivalve sepa- ration from sediments, using the specific gravity Fig. 1 Location of Lake Shinji. (᭹) Sampling sites; () difference between clams and sand in a concen- 15 experiment site. trated zinc chloride solution. This solution is, however, toxic and the disposal of the solution is costly. Hence, in the present study the juveniles surface9–11 or the growth line from acetate peel rep- were separated from the sediments on a 0.5-mm- licas of shell sections,12 or by size frequency.13 mesh sieve by the following procedure. Takada et al. considered the growth of C. japonica The sediments were stained with 10% neutral in Lake Shinji after age determination from liver- formalin containing sufficient quantities of rose or burnt umber-colored rings on the shell surface, bengal to distinguish the juveniles from sand and but did not clarify the relationship of the ring num- were dehydrated for 2–3 days in a drying machine ber on the shell surface to age.9 In contrast, where the temperature was kept at 60∞C, before Kawashima et al. and Utoh determined the age of being placed in a stainless steel tray full of water. C. japonica from concentric grooves on the shell The clams that rose to the surface were collected surface.10,11 The latter author confirmed that the with a dropping pipet. The bottom materials were formation of the groove was synchronized with gently stirred with a spoon to remove the clams that of the translucent layer in the shell section. from the sand particles. This procedure was The chromatic growth ring is often unrecognized repeated several times until clams were not found in aged clams or specimens with a wholly black- at the surface. The collected clams were placed in colored shell surface. Consequently, the purpose of the fixative solution and allowed to settle. The shell the present study was to investigate the growth length of 73 juveniles, which were dehydrated and characteristics of C. japonica in Lake Shinji, the had settled, were compared to those before dehy- availability of the concentric groove on the shell dration, using samples collected at Matsue in surface for age determination and the relationship February 2000. The mean shell lengths (±SD) of of the ring number on the shell surface with age. specimens before and after dehydration were 0.93 ± 0.22 mm and 0.93 ± 0.23 mm, respectively. There was no significant difference in the mean MATERIALS AND METHODS shell lengths between specimens at the 5% signifi- cance level. Consequently, dehydrating small Sampling and measurement clams did not affect their shell lengths. This method was employed for the samples obtained Samples of C. japonica were collected at Matsue from February to November 2000 in order to sepa- and Kimachi in Lake Shinji (Fig. 1), where the fish- rate small clams from sediments. ery for C. japonica is operated, once a month from The shell length (mm) of the samples collected 1 November 1999 to 2 November 2000. The sam- in the procedures described here was measured to pling gear used in the present study was a small- the nearest 0.1 mm. A sliding caliper was used to sized Smith–McIntyre grab sampler, which covered measure shell lengths larger than 3 mm, while the a surface area of 0.05 m2. Sediments were grabbed others were measured under a stereoscopic micro- by the sampler four times per site from spring to scope. The sample number of each shell length Growth and age of Corbicula japonica FISHERIES SCIENCE 603 class at 1-mm intervals were converted into the the shell surface of each individual in the MG with number of individuals per 1 m2 according to the a router in order to identify the 103 individuals. The number of grabbing times in each month, and shell four shell length classes were denoted as MG1, length distributions were estimated for samples MG2, MG3 and MG4 in ascending order, respec- collected over 13 months. tively. Table 1 shows the shell length range and the number of individuals in each MG class. The individuals of the MG group were placed in Age determination a cage (33 ¥ 57 ¥ 10 cm) of which the mesh sizes were 6 mm and 3 mm on the upper and lower Subsamples of 14–206 individuals were selected faces, respectively.