WOODS HOLE LABORATORY REFERENCE DOCUMENT NO. 84-35 Annotated Bibliography of the Ocean Quahog, Arctica islandica (Linnaeus) by Judith Brownlow and John Ropes National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Center Woods Hole Laboratory Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE OCEAN QUAHOG, ARCTICA ISLANDICA By J. Brownlow and J. Ropes Introduction The bibliography represents many years of literature collection. An earlier version was prepared by the librarian at the NMFS Ox ford laboratory, Helen Lange in 1975. John Ropes is largely responsible for collecting the literature and has authored many papers on population assessment and ageing of the ocean quahog. It has been brought up to date by the inclusion of all available papers found by the compilers. The MBL and NMFS libraries were searched, numerous interlibrary loans were obtained, and current journals were scanned. Several online literature searches were done over the years. "Grey" literature has been incl uded: laboratory reference documents, ICES CM papers, newspaper articles and cruise reports. The bibliography presently contains over 400 ci tations wi th abstracts. There are some Russian language articles which have not yet been translated. The ocean quahog fi shery began in 1943, but for three decades annual landings were less than 1,000 MT. A 2,500 MT landing in 1976 was followed by significant increases to an annual mean of 15,800 MT for 1979 to 1983. Dur in9 1976 - 1980, the ocean quahog resource supplemented stocks of ' surf clams reduced by overfishing. Most of the landings have be~n off beds from New Jersey and the Delmarva Peninsula, but a very abundant amd largely unfished U.S. ocean quahog resource occurs on Georges Bank, off Southern New England and Long Island, N.Y. The distribution and abundance of ocean quahogs gradually declines south of Long Island to its limit off Cape Hatteras. Longev i ty is an interesting recen t d i scove ry about the ocean quahog. One probably lived for 225 years, making it the longest lived bivalve yet known. Many in the population attain 100 or more years of age. Several reports in 1980 and thereafter have assessed ages for ocean quahogs from annually formed internal growth 1 ines seen in aceta te peel repl icas off radially sectioned valves. The validity of an annual periodicity of the growth lines has been confirmed by an extensive NMFS mark-recapture experiment. The age information gained from these studies has been invaluable in management plans for the fishery. Abbott, R.T. 1974. American seashells. Second Edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., N.Y., 663 pp. Arctica is~andica is described in a systematic list of American marine mollusks. Ackman, R.G., and M.G. Cormier. 1967. a-tocopherol in some Atlantic fish and shellfish with particular reference to live-holding without food. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada, 24: 357-373. The percent lipid andC(-tocopherol content of several fish and shellfish held for various periods of time were analyzed, since these may affect flavor. Ocean quahogs were found to be very low (-0.6%) in lipid, but relatively high in oc-tocopherol in proportion to lipid (230jlg/g). Ackman, R.G., and H.J. Hingley. 1968. The occurence and retention of dimethyl":'j3-propiothetin in. some filter-feeding organisms. J. Fish Res. Bd. Canada, 25( 267-284e Determination of dimethyl;D-propiothetin (DMPT) levels are reported for 10 filter-feeding organisms, 1 browsing mollusc, 1 carnivorous mollusc, and 1 crustacean. Mature oysters, scallops, and the pteropod Limacina he~icina showed high (ca. 0.1 mg/g) DMPT levels, mussels showed generally lower levels, and quahogs and a tunicate showed negligible amounts of DMPT. The periwinkle accumulated DMPT only when feeding on an alga rich in DMPT. Retention of DMPT over prolonged periods was studied in the oyster and in mussels. Seasonal variations, year-to-year variations, and variations with locations were studied for oysters and to a limited extent for mussels. The findings are discussed in terms of food availability and feeding habits and indicate that together w~th tocopherol it may be possible to correlate DMPT levels with the availability of phytoplankters in the food intake or some species. It is suggested that phagocytes may be responsible for prolonged retention of DMPT in oysters. (Authors· Abstract) Arctica is~andica was one of the quahogs used in the study. Ackman, R.G., S•. Epstein, and M. Kelleher. 1974. A comparison of lipids and fatty acids of the ocean quahaug (Arctica is~andica) fron Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada 12: 1803-1811. Lots of ocean quahaugs, Arctica is~andica, respectively from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, were compared to see if fatty acid compositions might reflect local food sources and thus explain alleged flavor problems. Lipid contents increased from May to July, but detailed fatty acid comparisons including those from flesh and hapatopancreas, gave similar results except with minor details indicative of active feeding. A holding experiment with New Brunswick quahaugs gave'essentially the basic lipid composition but after 1 10 wk compositional variations in fatty acid were suggestive of the effect of nonfeeding. The close fatty acid resemblence among several samples suggests that the ocean quahaug eventually converts ingested fatty acids to a species­ specific composition based on those acids common to other northwestern Atlantic shellfish. Certain details of these fatty acid analyses suggest particulate matter sources for some ingested fatty acids. No correlation between flavor and lipid or fatty acid composition could be obtained because flavor problems were not observed in these samples. (Authors' Abstract) Adams, W.N., Capt. 1977. Bacteriological analysis. Operation Mogul-February 1977. In: Lear, D.W. et al. (ed.) 1977. Effects of ocean dumping activity Mid-Atlantic bight--1976 interim report. U.S. Environ. Protect. Agency. Reg. III. Philadelphia, PA. EPA 90319-77-029, p. 161-166. Describes bacteriological (coliform) analysis performed aboard ship. Apetiea found to have relatively higher concentrations of coliforms than was indicated by water or sediment samples. Allen, J.A. 1965. Records of mollusca from the northwest Atlantic obtained by Canadian fishery research vessel, 1946-61. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada 22: 977-997. In the course of investigations into the fish and shrimp resources of an area from the southern edge of the Grand Bank and the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Dyer, Baffin Island, numbers of Mollusca were taken. Commercial trawls were used for the great majority of the hauls and because of mesh selection most of the Mollusca taken were specimens of the larger species. The majority of the 45 species collected are well known and the value of the present list lies in the records of distribution from an area where climatic conditions have severely restricted past sampling endeavour. (Author1s Abstract) Lists new Canadian records for Cyppina isZandiea. Anderson, B.G. 1976. Glacial geology of Northern Nordland, North Norway. Nor. Geol. Unders. Bull. 33: 1-74. Marginal moraines representing most of the Weichsel sequence were mapped. The oldest moraines, Egga I and II, are large submarine ridges on the continental shelf. Tromso-Lyngen moraines of Younger Dryas age lie at the mouths of several main fjords, and Pre-Boreal moraines radiocarbon-dated at 9000-10,000 yr B.P. lie near their heads. The Pre-Boreal moraines were correlated with glacial events in other areas, and they probably represent significant climatic fluctuations. A main shore-line (level P12) and a marine shell fauna with PoptZandiea apetiea correspond with the Tromso-Lyngen moraines, and shorelines between levels P12 and P6 and marine faunas with Bathyapea gZaeiaZis or YoZdieZZa ZentieuZa correspond with the Pre-Boreal moraines. [BaZanus baZanus, HiateZZa apetiea, Maeoma eaZeapea, Apetiea 2 islandica, Leda pepnula, Mya tpuncata and Chlamys islandicus are mentioned.] The glaciation limits were 550 ± 50 m and 275 ± 50 m below the modern glaciation limits during the Tromso-Lyngen and the Pre-Boreal events, respectively. This corresponds well with observations in other parts of Norway. (Author I s Abstract) Anonymous. 1963. Surf clam survey, progress report no. 1. Mimeographed report by the Oyster Institute of North America, Eastern Sea Clam Committee and the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 2 pp. Black quahogs were caught at more stations and in larger numbers than surf clams during a survey off the New Jersey coast. Anonymous. 1963. Sea herring and surf clam survey conducted. Commer. Fish. Rev. 25(9): 35-37. Describes tests of clam sampling equipment and fishing results on Georges Bank. Anonymous. 1965. Clams. Progress report of 1964 surf clam survey off Atlantic coast. Commer. Fi she Rev. 27(2): 18-20. Very few black quahogs were found in samples yielding the best catches of surf clams during a survey off the Maryland and Virginia coasts. Anonymous. 1965. Surf clam survey continued: MjV DELAWARE Cruise 65-2. Commer. Fish. Rev. 27(6); June: 28-30. BLACK QUAHOGS: Very few black quahogs were taken in the areas where the best catches of clams were made. They were also absent from 108 of the 130 tows from which no surf clams were taken. The best catches of black quahogs were made in the area at north end of the offshore grid lines in water depths of 22 to 24 fathoms; the numbers taken per tow varied from 1 to 567. Smaller quantities of black quahogs were taken in the catches from the southern end of those same grid lines and at depths of 20 to 2/ fathoms. Considerable numbers of quahog shells were also taken in some of the tows made in those areas. 3 Anonymous. 1965. North Atlantic fisheries explorations and gear development. Surf clam' survey continued.