Get Our Extension

Saccostrea glomerata

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Saccostrea glomerata
Sydney rock oysters.jpg
Oysters on a rock at low tide, Wingan Inlet
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreida
Family: Ostreidae
Genus: Saccostrea
Species:
S. glomerata
Binomial name
Saccostrea glomerata
(Gould, 1850)
Synonyms

Saccostrea commercialis
Crassostrea glomerata
Ostrea glomerata Gould, 1850[1][2]
Ostrea commercialis Iredale & Roughley, 1933[3]
Saccostrea culcullata ssp. glomerata[4]

Saccostrea glomerata, is an oyster species belonging to the family Ostreidae.[5]

It is endemic to Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, it is known as the Sydney rock oyster and is commercially farmed. In New Zealand, where the species is not farmed, it is known as the New Zealand rock oyster or Auckland oyster. The species is closely related to Saccostrea cucullata, the hooded oyster, which is common on Indo-Pacific rocky shores.[6]

Sydney rock oysters are capable of tolerating a wide range of salinities (halotolerant). They are usually found in the intertidal zone to 3 m (9.8 ft) below the low-water mark.

Discover more about Saccostrea glomerata related topics

Oyster

Oyster

Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters are in the superfamily Ostreoidea.

Ostreidae

Ostreidae

The Ostreidae, the true oysters, include most species of molluscs commonly consumed as oysters. Pearl oysters are not true oysters, and belong to the order Pteriida.

Endemism

Endemism

Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be endemic to that particular part of the world.

Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering 268,021 square kilometres (103,500 sq mi). New Zealand is about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.

Saccostrea cucullata

Saccostrea cucullata

Saccostrea cucullata, the hooded oyster or Natal rock oyster, is a species of rock oyster found mainly in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

The Sydney rock oyster and New Zealand rock oyster have previously been classified as two separate species: Saccostrea commercialis and S. glomerata, respectively.[7] They have also been grouped with the hooded oyster into a single species, S. cucullata.[a][b]

When proposing the name Ostrea commercialis in 1933, Iredale & Roughley noted that the New South Wales oyster had been variously referred to species O. cucullata Born (Ascension Island), O. mordax Gould (Fiji), O. glomerata Gould (New Zealand), O. circumsuta Gould (Fiji); and even to O. trigonata Sowerby and O. mytiloides Lamarck.[3]

Distribution

In Australia it is found in bays, inlets and sheltered estuaries from Wingan Inlet in eastern Victoria, along the east coast of New South Wales, and north to Hervey Bay, Queensland, around northern Australia and south along the west coast to Shark Bay in Western Australia. The spat for these oysters travels down the east coast of Australia on the East Australia Current. Also, a small population exists on the islands in the Furneaux archipelago in Bass Strait, and in Albany on the south west coast of Western Australia, where they are farmed.

Discover more about Distribution related topics

Wingan Inlet

Wingan Inlet

Wingan Inlet is an inlet within the Croajingolong National Park, in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia.

New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. The Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory are enclaves within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. In December 2021, the population of New South Wales was over 8 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Just under two-thirds of the state's population, 5.3 million, live in the Greater Sydney area.

Shark Bay

Shark Bay

Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 23,000-square-kilometre (8,900 sq mi) area is located approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's official listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:Shark Bay’s waters, islands and peninsulas....have a number of exceptional natural features, including one of the largest and most diverse seagrass beds in the world. However it is for its stromatolites, that the property is most renowned. The property is also famous for its rich marine life including a large population of dugongs, and provides a refuge for a number of other globally threatened species.

Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia occupying the western 33 percent of the land area of Australia, excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,527,013 square kilometres (975,685 sq mi). It is the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. As of 2021, the state has 2.76 million inhabitants—11 percent of the national total. The vast majority live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.

Bass Strait

Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.

Breeding

Sydney rock oysters are "broadcast spawners", that is, eggs and sperm are released into open water where fertilisation occurs. Within hours of fertilisation, the eggs develop into free-swimming planktonic larvae. The larvae swim in estuarine and coastal waters for up to three weeks, during which they develop transparent shells and retractable feet. The larvae then settle on clean substrates using their feet to find suitable sites. The larval foot is resorbed once the larva is attached. The shell darkens and the small animal takes on the appearance of an adult oyster.

Growth rates vary with local conditions, but they generally reach 50 g (1.8 oz) in three years. Sydney rock oysters may change sex during life. Many start out as males and later change to females. About 60% of prime eating oysters are female. Selective breeding has reduced the time to market size from three to two years.[9] Great success in selection for disease resistance to two protozoan diseases of oysters, namely, QX disease Marteilia sydneyi and winter mortality Bonamia roughleyi, has been achieved.

Oysters are filter feeders, straining planktonic algae from the water. Birds, fish, stingrays, mud crabs, and starfish all eat Sydney rock oysters, with the Australian pied oystercatcher being particularly fond of them.

Discover more about Breeding related topics

Commercial industry

A substantial commercial oyster farming industry is found in New South Wales and southern Queensland, with a small, emerging industry in Albany, Western Australia. The industry produces a gourmet product and provides employment in isolated coastal communities. In Australia, oysters in peak flesh condition (i.e. spawning condition) are preferred for the half-shell trade.

Consumption

Commercially purchased Sydney rock oyster and empty shells. The upper valve is discarded before sale.
Commercially purchased Sydney rock oyster and empty shells. The upper valve is discarded before sale.

Sydney rock oysters are best consumed when freshly shucked, but do have a good shelf life when kept whole, of up to 14 days providing they are kept at the correct temperature and handled safely.

Source: "Saccostrea glomerata", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, April 29th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccostrea_glomerata.

Enjoying Wikiz?

Enjoying Wikiz?

Get our FREE extension now!

Notes
  1. ^ For example, Harry's 1985 taxonomy, which was based on soft-tissue anatomy as well as shell morphology, only recognised two Saccostrea species: S. cucullata and S. palmula.
  2. ^ In Born's original 1778 description, the name was published misspelled with two 'c's as S. cuccullata. Born later (1789) used S. cucullata, feminine of Latin cucullatus, 'hooded'.[8] Technically the former name has precedence, but the latter has been in wide use for over two centuries.
References
  1. ^ "Taxon details: Saccostrea glomerata". World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
  2. ^ Gould, A. A. (1850). "Descriptions of new species of shells from the United States Exploring Expedition". Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 3: 346. The type description is from a New Zealand specimen.
  3. ^ a b Iredale, Tom; Roughley, T. C. (1933). "The scientific name of the commercial oyster of New South Wales". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 58 (2): 278.
  4. ^ "Taxon details: Saccostrea culcullata". World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
  5. ^ MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Saccostrea Dollfus & Dautzenberg, 1920. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138300 on 2022-04-27
  6. ^ Lindenmayer, David; Burgman, Mark (2005). Practical Conservation Biology. CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 0-643-09089-4.
  7. ^ Anderson, Timothy J.; Adlard, Robert D. (1994). "Nucleotide sequence of a rDNA internal transcribed spacer supports synonymy of Saccostrea commercialis and S. glomerata". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 60 (2): 196–197. doi:10.1093/mollus/60.2.196. (paywall)
  8. ^ Gofas, Serge (2018). WoRMS note.
  9. ^ selective breeding for disease resistance and fast growth sydney rock oysters.
External links

The content of this page is based on the Wikipedia article written by contributors..
The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence & the media files are available under their respective licenses; additional terms may apply.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization & is not affiliated to WikiZ.com.