Summer Mortalities and Incidental Parasitisms of Cultured Pacific Oysters in Alaska

Abstract

During the summer of 1987, surface seawater temperatures in Alaska were unseasonably warm, periodically approaching 20°C with salinities of 29‰ in late July and early August. During this period at least one Alaskan oyster grow-out station sustained excessive mortalitygreater than 50%-within a group of 150,000 18-month-old Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas. These oysters continued to die despite later reported declines in both seawater temperature and salinity. Histological examination of moribund oysters indicated mature or nearly mature gametes in both sexes and infiltration of tissues by opportunistic secondary invaders composed primarily of various bacterial types and the flagellate protozoan Hexamita sp. An incidental, but potentially pathogenic, rickettsia-like organism that formed cytoplasmic inclusions within vesicular connective tissues was also observed in some of the oysters. Circumstances associated with this oyster mortality were similar to those accompanying summer mortalities of raft-cultured Pacific oysters in Japan, where deaths were caused by physiological stress from rapid gonadal development or a prolonged prespawning condition.