Sponge moving1/28/2024 ![]() Not only can boring sponges spoil your oysters, but they also create an “economic problem, and men in the business of collecting or raising oysters agree that Cliona is one of the principal causes of loss,” noted zoologist Max Walker de Laubenfels. Such infestations create a major problem for oyster populations.īoring sponges are common in the salty portions of estuaries globally, and North Carolina is no exception. The brittleness also makes the bivalve more vulnerable to predators that can crush its shell. Infested oyster shells often crumble in the hands of the shucker, leaving bits of shell in the sweet meat. The oysters had small holes in their shells, a telltale sign of an infestation by the boring sponge, a common estuarine organism in the family Clionaidae. ![]() Niels Lindquist, an ecologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, noticed that many of the oysters served at roasts were difficult to open because of brittle shells. Gregory Sorg builds the substrate on which the oysters will grow.
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