Post-harvest technology

In recent years great interest is envinced in several countries in the culture of molluscan shellfish. In the tropics favourable conditions exist for rapid growth and marketable oysters are obtained with in vir^n to twelve months. Investigations have been conducted at the Central Marine Fisheries Research institute and success has been achieved in perfecting the techniques of oyster culture in coastal waters (Nayar and Mahadevan, 1983). The awareness that shellfish have to be purified and rendered harmless goes back to the time of the Roman Empire. During the first century B.C. the Romans consumed cockles and oysters after treating them in tanks known as cockle washery (Yonge, 1962)