Biology:Dredge oyster

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Short description: Species of bivalve

Dredge oyster
Museum specimen of the shell of Ostrea chilensis
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreida
Family: Ostreidae
Genus: Ostrea
Species:
O. chilensis
Binomial name
Ostrea chilensis
Küster, 1844[1]
Synonyms[1]
  • Ostrea longiuscula (Küster, 1844)
  • (Hutton, 1873) Crassostrea discoidea
  • (Gould, 1850) Crassostrea nelsoniana
  • (Zittel, 1865) Ostraea angasi var. digitata
  • Lamy, 1929 G. B. Sowerby II, 1871
  • Hanley, 1846 Finlay, 1928
  • Hupé in Gay, 1854 Gould, 1850
  • Finlay, 1928 Hupé in Gay, 1854
  • Zittel, 1865 Ostrea vinolenta
  • Ostrea corrugata Ostrea fococarens
  • Ostrea huttoni Ostrea lutaria
  • Hupé in Gay, 1854 Ostraea chiloensis
  • Ostrea callichroa Ostrea charlottae
  • Ostrea cibialis Hutton, 1873
  • Finlay, 1928 Lamy, 1929
  • Hutton, 1873 (Küster, 1844)
  • Tiostrea lutaria Tiostrea chilensis
  • Crassostrea chilensis Ostrea discoidea
  • Ostrea hefferdi Ostrea nelsoniana

The dredge oyster,[2] Bluff oyster[3] or Chilean oyster[4] (Ostrea chilensis),[5] is also known in Chile as ostra verde,[6] is a species of flat oyster. It is a marine bivalve mollusc of the family Ostreidae.

Distribution

This species is native to Chile and New Zealand.[7]

In Chile, its range limit is from Chiloé Island, Los Lagos region to Guaitecas Islands, Aysén region.[8] Practically, nowadays it only exists in the wild in one natural bank, Pullinque, a sector located in the Quetalmahue Gulf of Ancud which was declared a genetic reserve in 1982, and as a marine reserve in 2003.[9]

In the 1960s, the species was deliberately introduced to the Menai Strait off Wales by the Fisheries Laboratory, Conwy. This was an experiment to determine if the oyster could be an alternative to the native Ostrea edulis oysters in fisheries. The species was found to be unsuitable because of low recruitment and vulnerability to parasites and pathogens, and the experiment was abandoned. A self-sustaining population of O. chilensis remains, and has spread to other areas of the Menai Strait; it is regarded as an invasive species.[10]

Habitat

This bivalve is found from low tide to depths of up to 35 m. In Chile it lives attached to hard rocky or muddy bottoms, from intertidal to about 8 meters deep, in enclosed bays or areas protected from strong waves.[11]

Description

Its length is up to 105 mm, width up to 70 mm, and inflation up to 33 mm. In Chile its maximum controlled length is 87 mm.[11]

Ecology

In New Zealand, the species is infected by two haplosporidian parasites, Bonamia exitiosa and B. ostreae.[12][13][14][15] B. ostreae has been detected in O. chilensis across most of the oyster's range in New Zealand, from the Hauraki Gulf in the north to Port Adventure in southern South Island.[12] B. ostreae is introduced in New Zealand and was first detected O. chilensis in the Marlborough Sounds in 2015, and it has been detected in Big Glory Bay on Stewart Island since 2017.[13][14][15]

Commercial importance

Bluff oysters served on ice
Bluff oysters at a restaurant

In New Zealand, they are a prized delicacy, and harvested from March to August from the Foveaux Strait oyster fishery, which centres on the town of Bluff (hence the local name).[16] From the early 1980s, the fishery went into serious decline, due to the outbreak of an oyster parasite, Bonamia exitiosa, with the disease killing an estimated billion oysters between 2000 and 2003.[16] The population has been recovering since 2003, with fishermen voluntarily limiting the catch to half the allowable to aid the revival.[16][17]

In Chile, it has been harvested by the fishermen of Chiloé Island since ancient times, but the written and photographic information dates back to the mid-1800s.[6] As Chile is the longest country in the world, the transportation of the harvested oysters by wooden-made ships, or by early trains in the early 1900s from the south (42°S) to the port of Valparaíso, and then to the capital, Santiago, was complex; however, it got solved when the oysters were placed in barrels that were grated and jointed by quila, a kind of bamboo, and then filled with seawater.[18] The trip lasted half a month.[18] In the city of Ancud, Chiloé Island, the extraction of the oyster was banned even at that time (as in 1869 and then in 1874) due to its overexploitation, on the other hand its sale brought thousands of barrels, boxes and sacks of oysters to the capital to supply its great demand.[6][18] The oysters was even kept in ponds for growing by Frenchmen, first by Mr. Choloux in Lechagua, Ancud, 1874 and later by the Solminihac family, formally with a concession in Quetalmahue, city of Ancud, in 1915.[6] A couple of years later, in 1935, the Pullinque Oyster Station was built in Pullinque to try to cultivate the Chilean oyster, initiative that proved to be successful because it could provide with seeds for growth to other aquaculture centers that emerged during the agrarian reform period.[6] The economy of Chilean oysters was severely hurt when the most powerful earthquake recorded happened in Valdivia, 1960 because the Pullinque Oyster Station was destroyed by it.[6] Hence, the Corfo institution tried to bring-in the Pacific oyster, but the intention was not recommended by the consulted experts, a decision that was respected by the national government.[6] After the agrarian reform the commercial aquaculture started in the 80s, during the Civic-military dictatorship of Chile, according to FAO, since producers that were state-managed passed to be privately regulated, and also because many exotic species were tentative to introduce as culture options.[19][6] Nowadays, its culture is successful in Chile with considerable tons exported, and consumed in some places and restaurants.

Other

Changes in river flows in Southland, due to farming and especially power generation, carrying less limestone deposits into the Strait, is therefore believed to have caused an increase in susceptibility to Bonamia, as well as lower growth rates for some seasons in the past, but little evidence supports this and it seems only coincidental.[opinion]

Flawed discards practices in Chile during the 1890s of the small oysters ended up killing some oyster banks in Ancud. Particularly in Corona lighthouse and Quetalmahue Gulf; as the turbulence generated by the falling oysters resuspended the bottom sand, creating hypoxia conditions that did not allow the bivalves to breathe.[20][6]

Its Māori name is tio para.[21]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Ostrea chilensis Philippi, 1844". World Registry of Marine Species. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=397160. 
  2. "§2 Interpretation -- Fisheries Act 1996 No 88 as at 3 January 2013 -- New Zealand Legislation". Parliamentary Counsel Office. http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1996/0088/latest/DLM394199.html. ""dredge oyster" means the mollusc known as Tiostrea chilensis" 
  3. Whaanga, Mere (12 June 2006). "Mātaitai – shellfish gathering - Mussels, oysters, toheroa and other species" (in en-NZ). https://teara.govt.nz/en/mataitai-shellfish-gathering/page-5. 
  4. SUBPESCA. "Ostra chilena". https://www.subpesca.cl/portal/616/w3-propertyvalue-667.html. 
  5. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Ostrea chilensis Küster, 1844". http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=397160. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Villarroel-Pérez, Martín (2021). "Historia de la Ostra chilena (Ostrea chilensis Philippi, 1845)". https://smach.cl/historia-de-la-ostra-chilena/. 
  7. CABI (2019). "Ostrea chilensis (Chilean oyster)". https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/71176. 
  8. Solís, I.F. (1967). "Observaciones biológicas en ostras (Ostrea chilensis Philippi) de Pullinque". Biología Pesquera 2: 51–82. 
  9. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional (2004). "Decreto 133 DECLARA RESERVA MARINA PARA LA OSTRA CHILENA EN PULLINQUE X REGION" (in Spanish). http://bcn.cl/2s74l. 
  10. Eilir Hedd Morgan (2012). The invasion potential of the non-native Chilean oyster (Ostrea chilensis Philippi 1845) in the Menai Strait (North Wales, UK) : present observations and future predictions (Ph.D.). Prifysgol Bangor University.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Osorio (2002). "Moluscos marinos en Chile. Especies de importancia económica: Guía para su identificación". https://libros.uchile.cl/files/presses/1/monographs/508/submission/proof/files/assets/common/page-substrates/page0132.jpg. 
  12. 12.0 12.1 Lane, Henry S.; Jones, B.; Poulin, Robert (2018). "Comparative population genetic study of an important marine parasite from New Zealand flat oysters". Marine Biology 165. doi:10.1007/s00227-017-3260-4. 
  13. 13.0 13.1 Lane, Henry S.; Webb, Stephen C.; Duncan, John (2016). "Bonamia ostreae in the New Zealand oyster Ostrea chilensis: A new host and geographic record for this haplosporidian parasite". Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 118: 55-63. doi:10.3354/dao02960. 
  14. 14.0 14.1 Final Report: Bonamia ostreae surveillance, Surveys 11-15 (February 2019 to March 2021), December 2021. (Report). Wellington: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). 2021. 2021004WN. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/49504-Bonamia-ostreae-surveillance-Surveys-11-15-Report. Retrieved 10 December 2025. 
  15. 15.0 15.1 Lane, Henry S.; Bilewitch, Jaret P.; Brooks, Amber; Smith, Lisa; Pomarède, Marine; Dymond, Megan; Michael, Keith; Zareie-Vaux, Felix (2025). "Concurrent infections by Bonamia species (Haplosporidia) do not cause more intense infections". Parasitology. doi:10.1017/S0031182025100978. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 "High demand for recession-proof oysters". New Zealand Herald. 2 March 2009. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10559582. 
  17. H.J. Cranfield, A. Dunn, I.J. Doonan and K.P. Michael 2005. Bonamia exitiosa epizootic in Ostrea chilensis from Foveaux Strait, southern New Zealand between 1986 and 1992. ICES J. Mar. Sci. (2005) 62 (1): 3-13 doi:10.1016/j.icesjms.2004.06.021
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 Couyoumdjian, Juan Ricardo (2009). "El Mar y el Paladar: El Consumo de Pescados y Mariscos en Chile Desde la Independencia Hasta 1930". Historia (Santiago) 42: 57–107. doi:10.4067/S0717-71942009000100002. 
  19. FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization (2005–2021). "National Aquaculture Sector Overview. Visión General del Sector Acuícola Nacional - Chile. National Aquaculture Sector Overview Fact Sheets". https://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/naso_chile/en. 
  20. Maldonado, R (1897) (in Spanish). Estudios geográficos e hidrográficos sobre Chiloé. Establecimiento Poligráfico Roma. pp. 169. https://es.scribd.com/document/70597826/Estudios-geograficos-e-hidrograficos-sobre-Chiloe-1897. 
  21. "Tio Para — Te Aka Māori Dictionary". https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/8137. 

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