Chlamys islandica

The dish dates back to the last ice age and is colored black due to Fossilisationsbedingungen. Recent shells are whitish to pink.

Chlamys islandica is the scientific name for the Iceland scallop or Northern scallop, a species of bivalve mollusc of the family Pectinidae ( Pectinidae ) and the type species of the genus Chlamys. Previously was the scientific name Pecten islandicus.

Features

The housing has 50-132 fine ribs and 60-116 mm long. The ribs are crossed by concentric growth lines; at the crossing points can sit fine scales. Very variable are case forms and case colors, which cover all shades from white through yellow and red to black. The surface of the housing are often colonized by barnacles of the genus Balanus.

Life, the occurrence and distribution

Chlamys islandica lives at depths of 8-1300 m on rock and gravel base to which it attaches itself firmly with byssus threads. She needs water temperatures of below 10 ° and still endures temperatures slightly below 0 °. This species is tart in the northern Atlantic Ocean off the south in the western Atlantic to Cape Cod, in Europe, with evidence in Iceland, published in the Shetland Islands and the Norwegian islands of Spitsbergen, Lofoten and Vesterålen and Jan Mayen. It also comes sporadically present in the North Sea Helgoland and also in the Azores.

Propagation is by releasing eggs and sperm into the open water, then where fertilization takes place. The fertilized eggs to planktonic - living veliger larvae develop. It can be up to 23 years old.

Subfossil finds

When trawling in the western Mediterranean are regularly subfossil shells from the last ice age (more than 11,000 years ago ) have been found. A light-colored specimens from the period of climate change towards the end of this ice age can be found, for example, at the mouth of the Clyde in Scotland. In the Mediterranean, there are still older, colored black by the Fossilisationsbedingungen copies.

Commercial importance

The species is fished commercially since 1985 in Norway intense, even in Iceland since 1969. In 1986, the maximum was landed with 12 700 tonnes in Iceland. Later, the annual catch has stabilized at about 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes. Since 2000, however, the stocks are rapidly declining. 2003, the quantity landed amounted to only 800 tons. However, the decline is not due to overfishing as the largest decline was observed in an area where the stocks were not fished. The causes are to be found in the ever-increasing sea temperatures.