Harvest-induced evolution

Harvest-induced changes in farmed Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) in France
Funded by the Marie Curie Research Training Network FishACE

Following the decline of the indigenous oyster in the 1960s, Pacific oysters from Japan were massively introduced to the French coastlines in order to sustain production. Nowadays Pacific oysters form the basis of oyster farming in France.

This is an attractive case for studying exploitation-induced adaptations because of three particularities. First, exploitation is strongly size-selective: oysters are harvested once they reach market size. Second, oyster farming still relies on recruitment in the natural environment. Third, since farmed oysters represent 95% of the total oyster biomass, recruited juveniles are mostly produced by farmed stocks, such that selective exploitation can readily affect subsequent generations…read more