Reef Aquarium Equipment Blog

During the week of November 12-17, 1987, staff and trainees from the MMDC Giant Clam Hatchery in Palau exported 3,000 captive-bred specimens of the threatened species Tridacna derasa (mean shell size 9.4 cm or 3.6 inches) to American Samoa as part of a regional reef stocking and conservation program.

This video shows a team of four clam hatchery workers, Theofanes Isamu and Tom Watson of the MMDC, Esaroma Ledua of Fiji and Lee Hastie of Scotland. They are packing 1,500 clams for export on November 12, 1987. A second shipment of 1,500 similar-sized clams was made to American Samoa on November 17. Both shipments arrived in American Samoa with negligible mortality en route and were planted on the reefs there in protective wire mesh cages.

Today, 23 years later, Tridacna derasa is the most popular giant clam species in the US saltwater aquarium trade because of its hardiness, nice color and wide availability. All or nearly all of the T. derasa specimens entering the trade are captive bred, a complete reversal of the situation in previous decades when all of the specimens of this species sold in the aquarium trade were wild caught.

The MMDC Clam Hatchery staff trained individuals from all of the main islands in Micronesia and subsequently extended the training to participants from Fiji, the Samoan Islands, the Marianas, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, Hawaii, the mainland USA and Europe. Within a decade of MMDC’s original clam farming breakthroughs in the early 1980’s, nearly all of the main islands in Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia had initiated some form of giant clam hatchery, village nursery program or both. Additional clam farming programs were estabished in Australia, the Philippines, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Okinawa.

Not since the inception of pearl oyster farming in the tropical Pacific over a hundred years ago has any sea farming technology spread so quickly and widely in this region.

The retail value of the 1,500 clams shown in this video, if sold in today’s (2010) US aquarium market, would be $45,000 at the going rate of $30 per 3-inch clam. The retail value of the 3,000 clams exported by the MMDC that one week in 1987 would be a staggering $90,000 in today’s US aquarium market.

The MMDC’s revenues from sales of cultured giant clam products (seed, meat and shells) from 1990 to 1994 totaled US$745,000. These sales were made to local restaurants, international seafood markets, tourists, other Pacific Island governments, and USA and European saltwater aquarium wholesalers. [This figure does not include foundation grants and contracts generated by the hatchery staff to fund a variety of research projects related to clams and clam mariculture.]

The MMDC staff had extensive early collaboration with government (MIMRA) and private (RRE) clam culture programs in the Marshall Islands. To learn about current clam farming efforts in the Marshall Islands click here:

www.orafarm.com/clams.html

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Tom Watson, Theofanes Isamu and Germance Taro examine a large “fugu” pufferfish (Tetradon stellatus) speared by a night diver in the MMDC Giant Clam Nursery in Malakal Harbor, Republic of Palau. Inside the puffer’s mouth at the time it was killed was a fragment of freshly broken shell from a 3-year-old cultured giant clam, Tridacna derasa. The appearance of this fish coincided with a rash of unexplained crushing predation in the MMDC ocean clam nursery.

Germance and Tom dissect the puffer and examine the stomach contents, which include several freshly killed marine invertebrates but no obvious clam remains. Still, the presence of the clam fragment in the puffer’s mouth, its formidable teeth and the circumstantial evidence of freshly crushed clams in the ocean nursery suggested to us that this fish might be a potentialy serious predator on established giant clam nurseries.

The smooth puffer is known as “fugue” in Japan, where it is a highly prized seafood delicacy which can be deadly if not prepared properly. In the video Germance comments (in Palauan) that if the gonads (eggs) of this fish are fed to a dog, the dog will be dead within five minutes.

Thanks to Germance Taro, Thomas Watson, Theofanes Isamu and the staff of the MMDC. This video footage was shot at the MMDC in 1988 by Gerald Heslinga, with the support of NMFS/NOAA, the US National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration.

Thanks to the Republic of Palau Ministry of National Resources, its Bureau of Resources and Development, and its Division of Marine Resources for assistance.

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Palau’s MMDC (Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center), founded in the late 1960’s by James McVey of NOAA, hold’s the distinction of being the world’s first successful giant clam hatchery and ocean farm. Masashi Yamaguchi and Steve Jameson achieved successful laboratory-scale spawning and larval culture with several tridacnid clam species in Palau and Guam in the early 1970’s. This work was continued in the mid- to-late 1970’s by Hamner, Beckvar, Heslinga and Braley with further larval culture and production of small numbers of juvenile clams. In the early 1980’s true mass production of tens of thousands of juvenile clams, along with development of land-based and ocean-based nursery technologies, was achieved at the MMDC by Heslinga, Perron, Orak, Watson and Isamu. Their work continued through the mid-1990’s with substantial assistance from Hanser, Fitt and Hastie. Milestones achieved included mass production of all seven species of Tridacnids found locally, the closure of the life cycle of Tridacna derasa in the Ocean Nursery (1984) and the closure of the life cycle of Hippopus hippopus entirely in land-based tanks in 1993.

Over two million seed clams and over 100 tons of cultured tridacnid clams were produced on site at MMDC by 1994. More than 100 individuals from Palau and the wider Pacific completed the MMDC Clam Hatchery Training Course, and hundreds of local and international shipments of clams were made for reef stocking, local clam gardens and the demonstration of seafood, aquarium and shellcraft markets. Research conducted at MMDC led to new understanding of the clam/algal symbiosis, the control of major ocean predators through better cage designs, the world’s first captive breeding of algal-grazing Trochus snails for clam/snail co-culture, the use of antibiotics in giant clam larval culture and the use of inorganic nitrogen supplements (DIN) for growth enhancement in land-based culture tanks. These advances are in wide use throughout the tropical Pacific islands today (2010).

The first hatchery manual on Giant Clam Farming was written by the MMDC staff and published by the Pacific Fisheries Development Foundation (NMFS/NOAA) in 1990. The manual was bundled with this video and made available to all interested parties in the region.

By 1994 the MMDC Giant Clam Hatchery and Gift Shop had become Palau’s top land-based tourist destination, hosting thousands of visitors annually. MMDC’s production tank farm underwent a 10-fold expansion between 1987 and 1994, from six to 64 units with 5-10 ton seawater capacity.

The MMDC’s revenues from sales of cultured giant clam products (seed, meat and shells) from 1990 to 1994 totaled US$745,000. These sales were made to local restaurants, international seafood markets, tourists, other Pacific Island governments, and USA and European saltwater aquarium wholesalers. [This figure does not include foundation grants and contracts generated by the hatchery staff to fund a variety of research projects related to clams and clam mariculture.]

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Palau’s MMDC (Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center), founded in the late 1960’s by James McVey of NOAA, hold’s the distinction of being the world’s first successful giant clam hatchery and ocean farm. Masashi Yamaguchi and Steve Jameson achieved successful laboratory-scale spawning and larval culture with several tridacnid clam species in Palau and Guam in the early 1970’s. This work was continued in the mid- to-late 1970’s by Hamner, Beckvar, Heslinga and Braley with further larval culture and production of small numbers of juvenile clams. In the early 1980’s true mass production of tens of thousands of juvenile clams, along with development of land-based and ocean-based nursery technologies, was achieved at the MMDC by Heslinga, Perron, Orak, Watson and Isamu. Their work continued through the mid-1990’s with substantial assistance from Hanser, Fitt and Hastie. Milestones achieved included mass production of all seven species of Tridacnids found locally, the closure of the life cycle of Tridacna derasa in the Ocean Nursery (1984) and the closure of the life cycle of Hippopus hippopus entirely in land-based tanks in 1993.

Over two million seed clams and over 100 tons of cultured tridacnid clams were produced on site at MMDC by 1994. More than 100 individuals from Palau and the wider Pacific completed the MMDC Clam Hatchery Training Course, and hundreds of local and international shipments of clams were made for reef stocking, local clam gardens and the demonstration of seafood, aquarium and shellcraft markets. Research conducted at MMDC led to new understanding of the clam/algal symbiosis, the control of major ocean predators through better cage designs, the world’s first captive breeding of algal-grazing Trochus snails for clam/snail co-culture, the use of antibiotics in giant clam larval culture and the use of inorganic nitrogen supplements (DIN) for growth enhancement in land-based culture tanks. These advances are in wide use throughout the tropical Pacific islands today (2010).

The first hatchery manual on Giant Clam Farming was written by the MMDC staff and published by the Pacific Fisheries Development Foundation (NMFS/NOAA) in 1990. The manual was bundled with this video and made available to all interested parties in the region.

By 1994 the MMDC Giant Clam Hatchery and Gift Shop had become Palau’s top land-based tourist destination, hosting thousands of visitors annually. MMDC’s production tank farm underwent a 10-fold expansion between 1987 and 1994, from six to 64 units with 5-10 ton seawater capacity.

The MMDC’s revenues from sales of cultured giant clam products (seed, meat and shells) from 1990 to 1994 totaled US$745,000. These sales were made to local restaurants, international seafood markets, tourists, other Pacific Island governments, and USA and European saltwater aquarium wholesalers. [This figure does not include foundation grants and contracts generated by the hatchery staff to fund a variety of research projects related to clams and clam mariculture.]

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In this interview conducted in the Republic of Palau in October, 1987, Mr. John You, then Chief of the Marine Resource Office in Yap State, Federated State of Micronesia, describes a conservation program in which thousands of cultured giant clams, Tridacna derasa, were shipped from Palau and planted in clam gardens in the villages of Yap, including Yap proper and the Outer Islands.

At the time of this interview in 1987, Yap had already imported some 8,000 Tridacna derasa of age 1-2 years from Palau’s MMDC Giant Clam Hatchery and planted them in 53 locations on Yap proper and another 25 locations in the outer islands.

Thanks to John You, the Yap Marine Resource Office and the collaborating clam farmers of Yap. Thanks also to the Government of Palau, the staff of the Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center (MMDC), the Pacific Fisheries Development Foundation (NMFS/NOAA) and the International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) in Canada.

Interview and videography by Gerald Heslinga (NMFS/NOAA).

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