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BHCAPBamfield Community Huu-ay-aht
| broodstock | DNA analysis | hatchery | settlement | outplanting | - the Hatchery
Twenty-three adult abalone were collected and spawned to produce juveniles in the hatchery. The adults live in filtered seawater where they are provided with a diet of diatoms and seaweed (Macrocystis integrifolia and Nereocystis luetkeana). The spawning season of the Northern Pinto Abalone is from April to August. In the hatchery, male and female abalone are housed in separate tanks while they spawn. A chemical added to the water causes the abalone to release their eggs and sperm. This chemical mimics the natural effects of sunlight on seawater, so it does not stress the animals. After the animals spawn, the eggs and sperm are collected, and the eggs are placed in aquariums where a specific amount of sperm is added to the water. Fertilization occurs quickly within these tanks, and after one minute fertilized eggs are removed, thoroughly rinsed, and placed into new tanks.
This picture shows the tanks where the fertilized eggs, trochophore larva, and veliger larva are held in filtered seawater.
The spats settle onto the plates for forty-eight hours before the waterflow in the tanks is turned on. The settling plates are covered in benthic diatoms, the favourite food of juvenile abalone. Two to three hundred tiny abalone settle on each plate, where they will remain for 5-6 months, feeding on benthic diatoms.
The BCHAP abalone hatchery at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre is currently home to approximately 1100-1200 juvenile Northern Pinto Abalone, which were three and a half months old in mid-October and measured 3-4.5 mm in size. The abalone will not be released into the wild until they are at least one year old and have reached a size of 1 cm. See where the juvenile abalone go once they have OceanLink
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In the winter of 2001,
Forty-eight
hours after fertilization occurs the eggs develop into trochophore
larva, which are very tiny, measuring approximately 0.2 mm
in size. After they emerge from the eggs, the larva swim
to the surface layer of the water, which flows into another
tank. This allows the newly hatched abalone larva to be separated
from the eggs as soon as they emerge. After another twenty-four
hours the trochophore larva develop into the veliger larval
stage. These larva are non-feeding, but are active swimmers,
and can often be seen swimming in tornado-like formations.
The veliger larva continue to develop for about two weeks
before they are moved into larger tanks. At this stage the
juvenile abalone are called "spats", and are ready
to settle onto a substrate. In the hatchery, the spats settle
onto settlement plates (see picture at right), which are held in baskets (see picture below) in large tanks taking up most of the space in the hatchery.