Monitoring Bay Scallop Recruitment

Monitoring Bay Scallop Recruitment

FWRI intern Lindsey O'Hern pulls up a recruitment collector while biologist Anne Dowling prepares to bag the sample.

FWRI scientists continually monitor bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) spat recruitment in the Gulf of Mexico by deploying collectors. Recruitment collectors are composed of a citrus bag weighted to a concrete block and float-array. The citrus bags emulates seagrass which spat will attach to. These traps are switched out every 6-8 weeks and the number of spat are recorded.

Image Credit: FWC