My Self

Marine pearl culture

Scope for

Group Farming

The bivalve culture of prawn farming

is gaining importance and popularity

throughout the world. The

worldwide popularity of mussel as an edible

bivalve is no surprise that over 203,000

tonnes of mussels are harvested from the

wild and a million tonnes of farmed mussels

were landed in 1999(FAO).

The bivalve resources of India

comprising of mussels, edible oysters, clams,

gastropods, cephalopods, and pearl oysters

have become an important source of income

for the coastal villagers.

In terms of production, India produced

1, 57,473 t molluscs in which 55343 t are

bivalves, 665 tonnes are gastropods, 101456

tonnes are cephalopods by capture. The

production figures for 2002 are 1300 tonnes

of mussels, 600 tonnes of oysters by culture

and a few kg of pearls.

In India, bivalve culture started in early

seventies. The Indian production has not

created much impact on the world scenario

when compared to that of China, which

ranks top in the bivalve production. The

reason is the wide spread culture of bivalves

in China without any socio-economic

problems.

Bivalve culture in Kerala, Tamil Nadu,

Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and

Andamans has shown encouraging results.

Culture of bivalves is an effective way of

enhancing seafood production, among them

mussels has the highest production rate and

the most valued is the marine pearl oyster

and pearl (Queen of gems).

India is endowed with rich resources of

pearl oysters, both in the Gulf

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