Seed production and farming of Indian pearl oyster Pinctada fucata- Winter School on Recent Advances in Breeding and Larviculture of Marine Finfish and Shellfish

Indian pearl oyster belonging to the Genus Pinctada occurs in the two Gulf zones of India ie., Gulf of Kutch in \nGujarat and Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu. Commercial fishery existed in GoM till 1961 and then has gone into a \ndormant period due to many reasons including insignificant natural settlement of spat in the pearl beds (‘paars’) of Gulf \nof Mannar. To sustain a pearl culture industry, a steady supply of pearl oyster seed and farming it to mother oysters is \na pre requisite. Large scale collection of pearl oyster spats either by using spat collectors or from their natural beds \nwas not always found dependable owing to the irregular spat fall. Hence, hatchery production of pearl oyster seed \nand mother oyster culture has become an essential aspect as far as pearl culture is concerned. The following account \ndetails the basic hatchery requirement, broodstock maintenance and spawning and hatchery production of spats of \nPinctada fucata and the methods of farming the spats for mother oyster development.