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Reproductive Success In Hatchery-Produced Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica (Gmelin), April Piggott

Theses and Dissertations

The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica Gmelin 1791) has great ecological and economic importance but populations have declined, especially in Chesapeake Bay, to historically low numbers. Hatcheries strive to produce oysters with beneficial characteristics for supplementation and commercial purposes, both natural and stimulated mass spawning. Unequal contribution of parents in mass spawnings potentially can lead to high levels of inbreeding and a loss of beneficial characteristics in offspring. In this study, we determined microsatellite genotypes for parents (n^parents =24, 49, and 77 parents) and progeny (n=96 each) of three hatchery-produced families and used the data for parental assignment. We observed the …