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Sustainable strategies to control ghost and mud
shrimp, which have become a major problem for West Coast oysters and the oyster
industry, are being developed by scientists from ARS, Washington State
University and Oregon State University. Photo courtesy of Microsoft Office
clipart.
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Protecting Oysters from Burrowing Shrimp
By Laura
McGinnis
May 7, 2008 For members of the multimillion-dollar
West Coast shellfish industry, their world is the oyster.
Unfortunately, the oyster industry's ability to meet rising demands is
hampered by two species of burrowing shrimp. So Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) scientists are collaborating with
colleagues from Washington State University
and Oregon State University to develop
sustainable shrimp-control strategies.
Ghost shrimp and mud shrimp inhabit the tideflats in estuaries where West
Coast oysters are raised. The shrimp burrow into the estuaries, making the
intertidal mud soft and unstable. As a result, oysters and other shellfish can
sink beneath the silty surface and suffocate.
Brett
Dumbauld, an ARS ecologist stationed in Newport, Ore., and his colleagues
are uncovering information about the shrimps' habitats, life history and
natural predatorsinformation that can be used to help develop new methods
to protect oysters from pests.
The scientists showed that ghost and mud shrimp may be most vulnerable to
control directly after "recruitment," when an influx of young shrimp
enters the estuaries. At this point, the shrimp live in small burrows near the
surface, where they are potentially more vulnerable to predators and other
treatment measures.
Dumbauld examined several shrimp populations in Washington and Oregon
estuaries and observed wide fluctuations in the number of young shrimp
returning each year. This is significant because being able to predict high
recruitment could impact the effectiveness of control strategies by improving
the timing, intensity and targeting of treatment.
Dumbauld is also collaborating with scientists at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
Pacific Coastal
Ecology Branch to create maps that will help scientists determine how
shrimp populations are distributed and whether control measures can be more
effectively deployed on a large scale. This type of information is critical to
developing successful integrated pest management strategies.
Read
more about the research in the May/June 2008 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.