Barnacle culture: background, potential and challenges

Abstract

There are approximately a dozen species of commercially interesting barnacles worldwide, some of which have been cultured on a semi-industrial scale. These species are listed and information is provided with regard to geographical distribution, landings and prices. Traditionally, 'goose' barnacles (four species) are considered to be the most important for consumption. World production already stands at 500 tonnes year À 1 , but this species has not been cultured to date. Some 'acorn' barnacles are also consumed (seven species), with harvest levels per species that do not exceed 200 tonnes year À 1 and selling prices that can reach US$17/kg.' Acorn' barnacle culture on a world scale is still developing. Nevertheless, production has occurred on a semi-industrial scale; speci¢cally, spat have been collected from the wild and grown in suspended systems. Farming trials have focused on two species of acorn barnacles: Austromegabalanus psittacus (Molina 1782) 'picoroco' in Chile and Megabalanus azoricus (Pilsbry 1916) 'craca' in Portugal. The large-scale production of these crustaceans will depend on the optimization of spat collection from the wild and/or the parallel development of mass production technologies for larvae (hatcheries). In addition, further development will be achieved by opening up new markets for commercialization.

Potency of Barnacle in Aquaculture Industry

“…Among balanomorph barnacles, similar experiments have been undertaken on Megabalanus azoricus in the Azores islands, where technologies have been designed for installing collectors in the water column. The results indicate that larval settlement occurs, although it is still not possible to ensure that levels are sufficient for industrial scale cultures (Pham et al, 2008;Pham & Silva, 2010;López et al, 2010). Thus, progress has been made, on an experimental level, with these two species, in the area of spat collection from the wild.…”

“…In spite of the commercial importance of various species of barnacles, development of activities associated with cultures is limited to a few species (López et al, 2010). Among the lepadomorphs, previous information on Pollicipes pollicipes is available related to obtaining juveniles in artificial floating substrates (Goldberg, 1984).…”

“…In this species, it has been shown that levels of spat collection from the wild will permit the development of commercial cultures. Similarly, the growth rates enable specimens of a commercial size to be obtained over a short period of time (López, 2008;López et al, 2010). Furthermore, low cost production technologies have been developed to obtain spat and to enhance growth.…”

“…Scientific and common names, geographic distribution and production types. Source: Modified from López et al, (2010). Freire, 2003.…”

A description of the larval development of Megabalanus azoricus (Pilsbry, 1916) reared in the laboratory

“…The knowledge of the life history of M. azoricus is also fundamental for a sustainable management of the species. Furthermore, recent studies to establish a commercial aquaculture of this species (Pham et al 2008;López et al 2010) have also emphasized the need for a detailed analysis of the species' larval development. This paper is the first description of larvae of the genus Megabalanus for the Portuguese oceanic islands (Azores), providing detailed information on the duration, segmentation, and setal types of all stages.…”