The history of French oyster culture consists of a succession of developmental phases using different species, followed by collapses caused by diseases. The indigenous species Ostrea edulis was replaced first with Crassostrea angulata, then C. gigas. France is now the top producer and consumer of oysters in Europe, producing around 120,000 t of the cupped oyster C. gigas annually, and an additional 1500 t of the flat oyster O. edulis. Cupped oysters are produced all along the French coast from natural and hatchery spat. Various structures are used to collect spat from the wild. After a growing-on period, oysters are cultivated by three main methods: (1) on-bottom culture in the intertidal zone or in deep water, (2) off-bottom culture in plastic mesh bags in the intertidal zone, or (3) suspended culture on ropes in the open sea. The main recent development is the increasing use of hatchery oyster spat, especially triploids. Almost all oyster production is sold fresh and eaten raw straight from the shell. There is marked seasonality in sales, with the majority being made during Christmas and New Year. Abundant production and the lack of market organization induce strong competition among the production areas, causing prices to fall. Oyster farmers have developed strategies of sales promotion and regional quality labeling to overcome this difficulty. There are numerous production hazards, including environmental crises (microbiological pollution), unexplained mortality, and overstocking, and recent problems with toxic algae have disrupted oyster sales. However, oyster culture has many assets, including a coastal environment offering favorable sites for mollusc growth and reproduction. Oysters have been consumed in France since ancient times, and their culture is now well established with a concession system that favors small family firms. There is a young, well-educated farmer population, with technical expertise and savoir faire. Careful seawater quality monitoring ensures good consumer protection, and research is making innovative contributions (selection and polyploids). These points and opportunities for market expansion should bolster this industry's future, although the problem of toxic algae, probably linked to global warming and anthropogenic factors, and the threat of new diseases, pose vital questions for future research.
Growth of the black-lip pearl oyster, Pinctada margaritifera var. cumingi, was studied for an annual cycle, from March 1997 to April 1998, in the lagoon of Takapoto atoll (Tuamotu archipelago, French Polynesia). Growth in shell and in tissue were measured every 15 days on three successive age groups of cultivated pearl oysters. At the same time, hydrobiological parameters (temperature, salinity, oxygen concentration, suspended particulate matter), known to have influence on bivalve growth, were followed each week during culture. No seasonal trend was observed in hydrobiological parameters, except for temperature which varied between 26°C and 31°C. The potential food for pearl oysters (particulate organic matter, POM, mg l −1) was slightly concentrated, but always available, so that, in this lagoon environment, no period seemed to be unfavourable to pearl oyster growth. Effectively, growth in shell was regular and shell did not exhibit any annual ring. Nevertheless, as it is often the case for bivalves, shell growth showed a progressive decrease with the age of pearl oyster and followed a classical Von Bertalanffy model: H=160.5 (1−e −0.038 (t−3.73)) with H the shell height (in mm) and t the age (in months). On the other side, growth in tissue did not follow the same pattern than for shell: P. margaritifera exhibited reduced growth rate in tissue during the warm season (November-April) so that a seasonal growth model was more appropriate: W tissue =6.9/(1+e (5.58-0.208 t−0.435 sin (2π/12 (t−1.427)) with W tissue , the dry tissue weight (in g) and t the age (in months). Several results concerning growth rates should be of interest for pearl farming. Firstly, the progressive decrease measured in shell growth rate implies, for pearl seeding operations, that the sooner the nucleus is implanted, the greater is the rate of nacreous deposition on this nucleus, and shorter is the time to obtain a marketable pearl for farmers. Secondly, exhaustive comparison, between growth rates obtained in our study and those obtained in other lagoons, tended to demonstrate that there is a small but significant variability in growth between lagoons of the Tuamotu archipelago. Further investigations need to be engaged in order to determine the most suitable sites for pearl farming in French Polynesia. Finally, comparison between growth of P. margaritifera var. cumingi and growth of other pearl oysters showed that P. maxima but also P. margaritifera var. erythraensis would also exhibit fast growth in Polynesian waters and then, would constitute potential candidates for further Polynesian diversification projects.
In situ clearance rate (CR) and biodeposition of the black pearl oyster, Pinctada margaritifera, were followed during several field experiments from 1996 to 1998 in the lagoon of Takapoto. Serial measurements of total particulate matter (TPM, mg l −1), particulate inorganic matter (PIM, mg l −1), and particulate organic matter (POM, mg l −1) were related to meteorological conditions, especially wind speed. As a general case, POM and PIM increased with wind speed. Nevertheless, PIM increased faster than POM so that the organic content (OC, %) of the TPM decreased progressively when wind speed increased. These TPM variations induced direct changes in feeding processes of P. margaritifera. CR (l h −1) averaged 22 l h −1 for a pearl oyster of 1 g dry tissue weight and varied with POM, PIM and dry tissue weight (W, g) according to the following equation: CR=26.96 PIM −0.42 POM 0.96 W 0.61. This clearance activity appeared to be the highest of those mentioned for bivalve species in their natural habitats. Pseudofaecal (PF, mg h −1) production started for very low PIM load (i.e., 0.17 mg l −1) and POM load (i.e., 0.28 mg l −1) in water and followed the equation: PF=32.6(POM−0.28)(PIM−0.17)W 0.77. In other bivalve species, PF are generally observed for higher PIM or POM levels. These PF were mainly constituted of mineral matter (more than 80% in weight). Faecal production (F, mg h −1) increased with seston load and reached progressively a plateau (i.e., maximal intestinal transit time) as shown by the equation describing the faecal biodeposition F=20 W 0.49 (1−e −0.66 TPM). The quantity and the composition of the faecal biodeposit were in a range commonly found in literature. This work confirms, by in situ experiments, previous results obtained in laboratory and especially that P. margaritifera has developed a trophic strategy which consists of processing large amounts of water to gain sufficient energy in poor waters. But this work also showed that meteorological conditions have indirect influences on feeding processes of pearl oyster by modifying significantly the concentration and the composition of seston.
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