Articles on Shellfish

Displaying all articles

Colleen Burge counts oysters on an oyster aquaculture lease in California. Collin Closek

September 11, 2017

A deadly herpes virus is threatening oysters around the world

Colleen Burge, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Oysters grow in seawater and filter their food from it, so how do you shield them from waterborne diseases? Scientists are working to develop strains that are resistant to a fast-spreading herpes virus.

September 6, 2017

How a tiny portion of the world’s oceans could help meet global seafood demand

Halley Froehlich, University of California, Santa Barbara and Rebecca Gentry, University of California, Santa Barbara

A new study shows that sustainable fish farming in deep ocean waters could produce as much seafood as all of the world's wild fisheries, in a space the size of Lake Michigan or Africa's Lake Victoria.

Mud oysters played a largely unappreciated part in Australia’s history. Cayne Layton

June 27, 2017

Huge restored reef aims to bring South Australia’s oysters back from the brink

Dominic McAfee, University of Adelaide and Sean Connell, University of Adelaide

In colonial times Australia's waters were teeming with mud oysters that provided food, cement, and cleaned the oceans. Now a 20-hectare man-made reef aims to restore some of their former glory.

Some sea animals with smooth shells can dig themselves into the sand in just a few seconds. Flickr/jridgewayphotography

May 16, 2017

Curious Kids: why are some shells smooth and some shells corrugated?

Jan Strugnell, James Cook University and Catarina Silva, James Cook University

Maëlle, 7, wants to know why some shells are smooth, while others are corrugated. It turns out that while corrugated shells are strong, smooth shells can move fast.

Live crab at a Seattle market. Shutterstock.com

September 16, 2016

As climate change alters the oceans, what will happen to Dungeness crabs?

Paul McElhany, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Global climate change is altering the chemistry of the oceans. A recent study suggests that the Pacific coast's lucrative Dungeness crab fishery could suffer as ocean water becomes more acidic.

February 18, 2016

Mussel power: how ocean acidification is changing shells

Susan Fitzer, University of Glasgow

Shellfish will have more brittle shells as oceans get more acidic – making them more vulnerable to predators. New research gives a fascinating glimpse into how they will adapt.

From boom to bust: tiger prawn farming. EPA

July 21, 2015

How shrimp farming wreaked havoc on Sri Lanka’s coasts

Mark Huxham, Edinburgh Napier University

The tropical island was one of a number of countries that joined the goldrush of prawn farming in the 1980s and 1990s. New research lays plain the results.

Vomiting since 500-470 BC. Stefano Bolognini

November 15, 2013

Why it’s safer to eat shellfish in months with a letter ‘R’

Callum Whyte, Scottish Association for Marine Science

As I was growing up, any time my mother suggested buying mussels or cockles for dinner, my gran would pipe up with the old adage that “you should only be eating shellfish when there’s an ‘R’ in the month…

Food from the Stone Age has raised doubts about the causes of the human revolution. Breville

June 27, 2013

Shellfish size may disprove cause of ‘human revolution’

Akshat Rathi, The Conversation

About 50,000 years ago, modern humans left Africa and began occupying the rest of the world. The common thought is that a…

Top contributors

Jan Strugnell
Associate Professor Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University
Robert Foley
Professor of Human Evolution, University of Cambridge
Martin Ziegler
Professor of Climatology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Callum Whyte
Deputy Manager Biotoxin Monitoring Programme, Scottish Association for Marine Science
Mark Huxham
Professor of Teaching and Research in Environmental Biology, Edinburgh Napier University
Sean Connell
Professor, Ecology, University of Adelaide
Susan Fitzer
Research Assistant, University of Glasgow
Paul McElhany
Research Ecologist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Colleen Burge
Assistant Professor, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dominic McAfee
Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide
Catarina Silva
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, James Cook University
Halley Froehlich
Postdoctoral Scholar, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara
Rebecca Gentry
Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Santa Barbara