Thanks To Scientists' Efforts, Giant Clams - Keystone Reef Species - Begin Philippine Comeback - AFP

[hatrack]

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 metres (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. In 1985 when he was head of what is now the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines he began an ambitious programme to breed and restock the bays and inlets around this southeast Asian archipelago nation of 7,000 islands.

"It really was a shock," he told AFP. "Giant clams are essential to coral reefs and so it was a race against time to build stock up."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Giant_clams_make_come_back_in_Philippines_thanks_to_science_999.html