The molluscan fisheries of Germany

• Main Authors: Seaman, Matthias N. L., Ruth, Maarten
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: USA National Marine Fisheries Service 1997
• Subjects: Pacific; Crassostrea gigas
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52288/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52288/1/3123.pdf; https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/legacy-pdfs/tr129.pdf

The German molluscan fishery has always concentrated on the North Sea. Mollusks occur in the Baltic Sea, but are not as marketable. In prehistory and the Middle Ages, coastal inhabitants gathered mussels, Mytilus edulis, cockles, Cerastoderma edule, and flat oysters, Ostrea edulis, for food and also used mussels as agricultural fertilizer. An organized oyster fishery developed in the 16th century and had considerable economic importance for 300 years. Oysters were dredged with sailing vessels near the coast, as well as far offshore. Catches peaked in the second half of the l 9th century at 3-5 million oysters per year. They declined dramatically in the following decades due to permanent recruitment failures, and the flat oyster finally disappeared from the German coast in the l 950's. An organized fishery for freshwater pearl mussels, Margaritifera margaritifera, also developed at the end of the Middle Ages, but mismanagement and environmental degradation since the late 19th century have brought this species to the brink of extinction as well. Other mollusks harvested on a smaller scale in the past have been softshell clams, Mya arenaria, and whelks, Buccinum undatum. The modern mussel fishery for human food began in 1929 with the introduction of novel dredging methods. Annual catches were in the order of a few thousand tons during the first half of this century and have attained 20,000-60,000 tons since the early l980's; concomitantly, prices have increased five-fold in recent decades. The fishery is now based on 14 highly specialized vessels harvesting from 3,800 ha (9,500 acres) of culture plots which are seeded with mussels from natural beds. Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, were first introduced in the l970's, and a natural population has recently begun to establish itself. They are cultured by one company which imports half-grown seed from the British Isles. A nearshore hydraulic dredge fishery for cockles began in 1973, but was banned for political reasons in 1992. It was replaced by a new offshore ...