Manila Clam (Tapes philippinarum Adams & Reeve, 1852) in the Lagoon of Marano and Grado (Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy): Socio-Economic and Environmental Pathway of a Shell Farm - Aquaculture and the Environment: A Shared Destiny - page 51

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Manila Clam ( Tapes philippinarum
Adams & Reeve, 1852) in the Lagoon
of Marano and Grado (Northern
Adriatic Sea, Italy): Socio-Economic
and Environmental Pathway of a Shell Farm
Barbara Sladonja 1 , Nicola Bettoso 2 , Aurelio Zentilin 3 ,
Francesco Tamberlich 2 and Alessandro Acquavita 2
1 Institute of Agriculture and Tourism Poreč, Poreč,
2 ARPA FVG-Osservatorio Alto Adriatico, Trieste
3 Almar Soc. Coop. Agricola a.r.l., I-33050 Marano Lagunare (UD)
1 Croatia
2,3 Italy
1. Introduction
Manila clam is a subtropical to low boreal species of the western Pacific, distributed in
temperate areas of Europe. The natural populations are distributed in the Philippines, the
South China and China Seas, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and around the
Southern Kuril Island (Scarlato, 1981). Its culture was initiated in those areas from the initial
traditional fishing activities by the collection of wild seeds.
As a species of commercial value, Manila clam has been introduced to several parts of the
world, to become permanently established in several areas. The species was accidentally
introduced the 1930's to the Pacific coast of North America along Pacific oyster Crassostrea
gigas seed import (Chew, 1989). The species naturally spread the Pacific coast from
California to British Colombia (Magoon & Vining, 1981). Besides public fisheries, hatchery
production has facilitated Japanese carpet shell culture along the Pacific coastline. Manila
clam was also transferred from Japan to Hawaiian waters early in the 20th century, where
wild populations still occur. Overfishing and irregular yields of the native (European)
grooved carpet shell, Ruditapes decussatus , led to imports of R. philippinarum into European
waters.
In 1972, the species was introduced into France by a commercial hatchery where they
cultivated since the early 1980's (Goulletquer, 1997). The aquaculture development was
facilitated by commercial hatcheries and additional imports from the United Kingdom using
broodstock from Oregon (USA), resulted with numerous transfers within the European
Union borders (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain). Moreover, aquaculture experiments resulted
in seed imports into Belgium, Germany, Israel, Tahiti, Tunisia, (Cesari & Pelizzato, 1985;
Shpigel & Friedman, 1990).