Cali Kid Corals

What happens when you abandon a clam aquaculture facility?

Not_Now_John

Not_Now_John

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You end up with this! Sorry for the poor picture, the vis wasn't that great. There are hundreds of these clams, all around 2 feet across or more.

 
Right, but where he is and where it might be could be thousands upon thousands of miles away. Questions like this are usually best answered by the poster they are directed to.
 
Define "facility". Is this a chunk of ocean that they used to raise clams, and then they just left, leaving the clams in the ocean? Or a lagoon or something? I can't imagine clams in a giant tank being able to survive very long.

This is pretty cool, if it's just some ocean floor coated with giant clams!
 
Hi guys, sorry for the delay, I'm back. These were taken at Orpheus Island, a nearshore reef between Townsville and Cairns in Queensland. There used to be an aquaculture program on the island in the 1990s and these were intended as breeding stock but it closed down some time ago (I want to say ~10yrs). This part of the island is now a "green zone" no take reserve. Most of the clams were left in their original position, all lined up, and some were transferred to other islands for conservation purposes. Quite a few died a few years ago after Cyclone (hurricane) Yasi hit the area pretty hard, and others have died from bleaching during el ninos, but most are still alive. The dead ones are still large enough for the empty shells to be too heavy to lift (I tried).

Here's a picture of the same area during an exceptionally low tide.
WaWbNBq.png
 
cool to see its in the ocean and not a on land or something. did you see any signs of small ones...so that they could be breading ok on there own in the location?
 
Yeah, there are tons of young ones. Their favorite habitat seems to be "microatolls" where the tops of massive corals have died from bleaching or something similar.
Hu1DRzs.jpg
 
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