The world’s first geoduck farm was started in 1970, but due to the clam’s texture its demand was low. They are usually found at depths between ten and eighty feet but have been recorded as deep as 360 feet. They can be found living in the Sound’s bays and estuaries and are most populous in the southern part. They are the largest number of marine animals in the Sound. Around 109 million adult geoducks are located in the Sound. Washington’s Puget Sound has the highest geoduck density in the continuous United States.
Even with all of these threats some geoducks can live to be over a hundred years old. The predators of the geoduck includes: humans, crabs, sea stars, sea otters, and snails. The major food source of Panopea generosa is phytoplankton. This means it will eat any small organisms that it filters through its siphon. They will burrow in any substrate, from soft mud to pea gravel. Geoducks bury themselves below the sand and extend their siphon out to filter feed. It lives in lower intertidal and subtidal zones of bays, sloughs, and estuaries. The geoduck clam can be found along the West Coast of North America, in locations ranging from Baja, California all the way to Alaska. Īreas where Panopea generosa can be found Then as the geoduck matures it burrows down in the sediment and reaches a maximum depth of about three feet. The shell begins to form and then soon after it loses its velum, spines grow on the outer edges of the shell and it settles on the seafloor. The larva then changes forming an organ used for swimming called a velum. These trocophores are very small and hard to see. The sperm and egg unite to form ciliated larvae called trocophores. The females then spawn their eggs and that can be as many as five million at a time. During this time the male spawns millions of sperm into the water. The greatest amount of activity occurs during the months of May and June. The geoducks usually spawn from the late winter to early summer months. Spawning is the process of aquatic animals releasing the eggs and sperm into the water in order to reproduce. It uses its foot to burrow into the ground where it then lives for the rest of its life. The geoduck takes in water with its inhalant tube and expels waste through it exhalent tube. Inside the siphon there are two tubes: the inhalant and the exhalent tubes. The siphon itself may grow to over three feet in length. The geoduck is best known for its large siphon. The periostracum protects the valve's middle layer from scratches and abrasions. The shell is covered by a thin covering called the periostracum. The geoduck’s ligament hinge connects and holds the two valves together. Each of the valves are equal in size and have irregularly shaped lines that indicate growth. It has a rectangular shell that can be up to nine or ten inches long and five inches high. A geoduck is a large species of bivalve clam.
0 kommentar(er)
