Marine gastropods

[Extract] Many marine gastropod molluscs are valued for their shells ('seashells') and there is a large trade in shells for the collectors' market. Other marine gastropods\ud are harvested for their meat or for both their shells and meat. The three most important gastropods in terms of large-scale fisheries are:\ud \ud • abalone (Haliotis species)\ud \ud • the trochus or top shell (Trochus niloticus)\ud \ud • the queen conch (Strombus gigas)\ud \ud Techniques for aquaculture have been developed for\ud each of these. Furthermore, a number of other fished\ud species are receiving increasing attention for their\ud potential in aquaculture, including, to name a few:\ud \ud • the green snail (Turbo marmoratus) and silvermouth\ud (Turbo argyrostomus), which are utilised\ud on a small scale in the Pacific Islands and Japan\ud (Yamaguchi, 1993)\ud \ud • the red conch (Rapana venosa), mud snail\ud (Bullacta exarata) and sea hare (Notarchus leachii\ud cirrosus) in China (Guo et al., 1999)\ud \ud • the spotted babylon (Babylonia areolata) in\ud Taiwan (Chaitanawisuti & KritsanapuDtu, 1998)\ud \ud • the predatory muricids, Chorus giganteus in Chile\ud and Chicoreus ramosus in Thailand.\ud \ud This chapter will focus on the culture of abalone,\ud trochus and the queen conch