17th Dec. Trieste
We went back to collect three larval collectors among the mussels. Noble pen shells often grow among the mussels: we hoped to have better luck and finally find some young individuals.
We examined two collectors that were placed this summer. One of them was badly damaged and we were unable to examine the contents bag by bag. Both collectors had numerous colonies of mussels and little variety of other animals. This time we found ascidians, small crustaceans, a few echinoderms as well as some squid eggs. We collected the species and froze them for the activities of OGS - Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale researchers. Unfortunately, we did not find any pen shells this time either.
The process of constructing, placing and examining collectors for noble pen shells is continuing at Slovenian and Croatian sites thanks to the project's networking actions. Starting this year, different materials, construction methods and positioning times will be tested in the three countries. We hope that this joint and synchronised experimentation will allow us to evaluate the best methods for growing pen shells!
We will continue to search for juveniles in the coming weeks and we will keep you updated!
