| The Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) is a major cultivated shellfish resource in France, which represented a tumover of 220 millions € in 2000. Mass mortalities among this commercially important bivalve species are known in France since about 40 years, but have become a recun'ing obstacle for growers of oysters and a threaten for commercial production along the French Atlantic coast in the last 20 years. Since 2000, IFREMER is canying out a multidisciplinary program, MOREST, ta understand the problem of summer mortality, and possibly ta solve il. As part of the MOREST program, the present study focuses on the relationship between gametogenesis, metabo lism and mortality of 7-month, i.e. juvenil e, C. gigas. In April 2004, a total of 2250 oysters were... |
