↑The successful artificial breeding of Chinese white butterfly shellfish can achieve large-scale breeding and stocking.
Haikou, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Through offshore land-based breeding, rejuvenation in the far seas, and then transporting large-scale shellfish back to the new model of nearshore breeding, the offspring of white butterfly shells artificially bred by Sansha Meiji Fishery Development Co., Ltd. are growing well, and the shell diameter of more than 8 centimeters of white butterfly shells has reached 100,000, forming the largest artificial conservation group of white butterfly shells in the South China Sea, and some germplasm has been used for field resource restoration.
↑Bao Zhenmin (center), an expert in shellfish genetics and breeding and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, investigates the growth of artificially bred white butterfly shellfish.
According to Meng Xiangjun, chairman and general manager of Sansha Meiji Fishery Development Co., Ltd., the company cooperated with the South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences to successfully realize the artificial breeding of white butterfly shellfish. In June 2017, the company collected 40 wild white butterfly shellfish, successfully carried out artificial seedling breeding in the shellfish breeding workshop of Wenchang Base in Hainan, and conducted expert on-site testing in October 2018, and then transported the artificially bred white butterfly shellfish seedlings to the 300,000 square meters shellfish breeding area in the specific sea area of the South China Sea for rejuvenation. At present, the growth status of white butterfly shellfish is good, and the survival rate has reached more than 90%.
Bao Zhenmin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the School of Life Sciences of Ocean University of China, believes that the white butterfly shell culture model, which is transported back to the coastal base culture of Hainan through the restoration of the far sea, provides a new way to solve the problem of low survival rate of white butterfly shellfish culture, which can provide support for the restoration and protection of China's white butterfly shell resources and better promote the sustainable development of large-scale pearl oyster farming industry, and at the same time, it can also provide value-added excellent seedlings for the restoration of the ecological resources of the near-sea white butterfly shell protected area and the ecological resources of islands and reefs.
It is understood that the white butterfly oyster, also known as the large pearl oyster, is a unique pearl oyster in the South China Sea, and the pearls cultivated by it have large particles and good color, which are both valuable ornaments and precious medicinal materials. White butterfly shellfish are mainly distributed in the waters around Hainan Island, Leizhou Peninsula and part of Guangxi, which have high requirements for the marine environment, belong to the national second-level protected aquatic wild animals, and are one of the key protected shellfish in China.
Source: Xinhua News Agency