Giant Clams Make a Comeback

BOLINAO - Marine biologist Suzanne Licuanan leans over the side of her battered blue and white motor boat to collect another bag of her precious cargo -- giant clam sperm. Holding up the bag containing eight litres (14 pints) of the cloudy liquid, she says: "It looks like buko (coconut) juice, doesn't it."


The world's largest shell fish weighing up to 230 kilos (507 pounds) and measuring up to 1.4 meters (4.5 feet) in length, the Tridacna gigas was once a common sight in waters around the Philippine islands.Highly prized for its meat and decorative shell the giant clam had virtually disappeared from the Philippines, fished out by local and foreign fishermen.

Shocked by the depletion of giant clam stocks marine biologist Edgardo Gomez decided to do something about it.

Read entire article here.

Also enjoy reading about pearls from the Tridacna Gigas mollusk here.

More giant pearls here.

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Mollusc News.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.