Effect of fouling organisms on cultured oysters, Crassostrea tulipa, in three Ghanaian lagoons

Abstract

The study was conducted to monitor spatfall regimes of oysters (Crassostrea tulipa) in Nakwa and Jange lagoons, and also to assess the seasonal abundance and effects of fouling organisms on cultured oysters in Benya, Nakwa and Jange lagoons. Spatfall was higher in Nakwa than in Jange lagoon. The spat preferred the concave surfaces to convex sides of the coconut shell collectors. Seasons of abundance of barnacles, the main fouling organism, and oyster spat were out of phase; but the abundance of tubeworms and Sargassum natans on one hand, and spat on the other, showed an overlap. Biofouling had very little influence on spatfall, growth and survival of the osyters cultured on cultches in the three water bodies. However, oysters on fouled cultches had better survival in Nakwa and Jange lagoons. It is concluded that biofouling may not constitute a potential problem to oyster farming in the three Ghanaian water bodies investigated.

JOURNAL OF THE GHANA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Volume 2 No. 2 (2000) pp. 36-53