What type of food do shellfish eat?
The majority of shellfish farmed commercially in Canada are bivalve molluscs such as oysters and mussels. They depend on natural food sources from the ocean, notably microscope marine organisms (plankton). Bivalve shellfish are filter feeders. As water flows past the shellfish, it is pumped through the gills. Food particles in the water, like plankton, are trapped on the gill surfaces and are transferred to the “mouth” (located at the forward end of the gills) where they are sorted for digestion. Shellfish farmers do not have to feed their stock in open water as the food source is present, however, the availability of natural food sources and “carrying capacity” is a prime consideration when searching for a site to culture shellfish. In shellfish hatcheries farmers need to grow the microscopic algae required by the larval shellfish. In this case, the farmers are farming the shellfish and their food.
