Parasite toll on oysters
I PA Invercargill A poor feeding season and an increase in oyster parasites were likely to have caused the high death rate among Foveaux Strait oysters this season, said a Ministry of Fisheries scientist Dr John Cranfield said about half the oysters in the western half of the strait had been wiped out. Preliminary tests had shown the cause was likely to have been a combination of two factors — a bad feeding season and the subsequent vulnerability of weakened oysters to parasites. | “We have found the | oysters to be in very poor
condition in which case it does not take much to finish them off,” Dr Cranfield said. “Their immune system as such has no bounce in it and what you are seeing is the effect of that.” He said the investigation showed a slightly higher water temperature in the strait this year which might have brought additional stress on oysters and upset their feeding habits. The situation was similar to the 1962-63 seasons when a parasite carried by the monkfish killed much of the Foveaux Sttpit oyster resource.
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Press, 9 July 1986, Page 6
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183Parasite toll on oysters Press, 9 July 1986, Page 6
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