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Abstracts
Workgroup: Oyster Fisheries Management and Restoration
Predicting time to critical levels of Perkinsus marinus in eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica : a new tool for increasing oyster production.
Principal Investigator(s):
Sammy M. Ray, Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University, rays@tamug.tamu.edu
Co-Investigator(s):
Thomas M. Soniat, Department of Biology, Nicholls State University, Enrique Kortright, Kortright Corporation
Funding Period: 9/1/98 to 8/31/00
In the initial funding cycle the DermoWatch project was established as an online community for the management of Perkinsus marinus in oysters. The project phases included sampling oysters and disease analysis, the establishment of a web site (www.blueblee.com/dermo), and modeling for the calculation of a time to a critical level of disease. Inputs into the model were established as initial weighted incidence of disease, oyster length, and water temperature and salinity.
The home page of the web site provides the most recent data for the Bay. Clicking on a station on a map of Galveston Bay gives a history of all of the data collected from the location. Three leases and four public reefs are sampled monthly, and levels of Perkinsus (=Dermocystidium) marinus are determined. A DermoWatch calculator was developed which allows anyone with information on initial weighted incidence of disease, oyster length, and water temperature and salinity to calculate a time to critical level of disease. Thus the web site is useful to users throughout the range of Dermo - from Maine to Mexico.
IMPACTS AND BENEFITS:
DermoWatch is a web-based community of scientists, managers and oyster growers. It provides recent and historical data on the occurrence and progression of Dermo disease in Galveston Bay, Texas. The web site calculates a time to a critical level of disease. This is an estimate of the time that it would take the parasite to reach a critical level, assuming no change in temperature and salinity. Thus, growers and managers have a record of the present status of disease, a history of past conditions and a prediction of the future direction of disease progression.
With DermoWatch Perkinsus ceases to be an unseen killer, and growers can follow disease conditions as they relate to the mortalities they observe. The estimate of a time to critical level of disease allows an oyster grower to make an informed decision to harvest immediately, move oysters to a lower salinity area, or keep the crop in place.
PROJECT PUBLICATIONS:
The first publications from the project were in 2002 and appear in the report for the second funding cycle.
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