The Role of the Oldest Mariculture Farm in Restoration of Stock of the Japanese Scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis (Jay, 1856) in Posyet Bay, Sea of Japan

Abstract

The pilot mariculture facility for rearing commercial invertebrates has existed in Minonosok Bay of Posyet Bay, Sea of Japan, since 1971. This bay is one of the few in Primorsky Krai where the risk of destruction of mariculture plantations from the effect of storms is a minimum. The total annually yield of spat of the Japanese scallop varied from 6 to 10 million individuals. Two-thirds of this amount was placed in cages for further rearing, and the rest was seeded on the bottom or passed to other enterprises. From 1972 to 2002 there were 104 million individuals of fitted juveniles (yearlings) and 24 million young-of-the-year seeded on the bottom in coastal water areas of the Primorsky Krai from Minonosok Bay. Thanks to the activity of the mariculture farm (two farms since 1994) in Posyet Bay, the stock of the Japanese scallop, which had been depleted by over-fishing in 1934–1935, was completely restored, and, according to our assumption, the total stock of the Japanese scallop was increased two times in Peter the Great Bay.