Giant clam was first victim of mankind's overfishing

A newly discovered species of giant clam has been identified as the first victim of overfishing by mankind.

The clam, named Tridacna costata and discovered by a woman nicknamed 'the mother of clams', was common in the Red Sea until the arrival of people an estimated 125,000 years ago.

Live specimens of the species have just been discovered and analysis of the fossil record has revealed it used to be abundant in the region. More than 100,000 years ago the species made up 80 per cent of all giant clams in the Red Sea but they now account for less than one per cent.

The sharp decline of the species, especially the disappearance of the largest individuals, took place at the time mankind reached the Red Sea.

The strong correlation between the dates, combined with previous evidence of a taste for seafood, was described as "a smoking gun" indicating that early man pillaged the sea.

"These are all strong indications that T. costata may be the earliest example of marine overexploitation," said Claudio Richter of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.

Because the clam, which today is about a foot long, thrived best in shallow coastal waters it was reached easily and would have been an imporant food source.

But the clam proved to be so readily accessible and so important to the diet of humans making their way out of Africa that it went into sharp decline.

"Humans were not only using but also depleting reef resources, making T. costata the likely earliest victim of anthropogenic degradation of coral reefs," the research team report in the journal 'Current Biology' published next week.

Marc Kockzius, of the University of Bremen, said:  "Tridacna costata is completely new to science and was not known from the fossil record. Only after living specimens were discovered it was possible to identify it in the fossil record as well."

He added: "It is proposed that humans were coasting out of Africa, utilising fishery resources in coastal habitats. We propose that giant clams, and especially Tridacna costata, were a valuable food resource which was rather easy to collect on the shallow reef flat.

"Especially Tridacna costata is very vulnerable to overharvesting, because this species is restricted to the reef top and therefore easily accessible. Tridacna costata was a marine ressorce which was depleted while moving out of Africa along the coasts."

Modern humans are believed to have walked out of Africa 125,000 years ago and aridity of the land close to the Red Sea meant food sources from the sea could have made the difference between death and survival.

Living specimens of the marine creature were discovered by Hilly Roa-Quiaoit, a scientist at Xavier University in the Philippines who is such an authority on the shellfish that she is known as the "mother of clams. The shellfish was the first new species of giant clam to be discovered for 20 years.

She noticed the creature, which has a distinctive zig-zag outline, during a project aimed at developing a breeding programme for another species of giant clam. Further research, including genetic analysis, confirmed suspicions it was a previosuly unrecognised type.

It differs from other species of giant clams in the Red Sea in that its breeding season takes place early in the spring to coincide with an annual plankton bloom.

Of 1,000 clams from the region that were analysed, only six were from the new species and it isexpected to be categorised as critically endangered.

Comments

[paul]

Sharks are an incredible success story in the history of life on this planet. And all without exception are carnivore (even the whale shark).
....

Humans are 'designed' to be omnivore, and not vegetarian or fruitarian.

[UH2L]

KIDBUCK

"Seems like proof that we need animal protein to encourage brain activity. Name the good ideas or inventions any of these meataphobes have had. Show me a single meataphobe society that's wasn't lifted out of its stoneage primitivism by meat eaters."

Lets see... India invented 0 and the modern number system, (wihtout which we wouldn't have computers), gambling, astronomy, cosmology, way before the Europeans did.

I can't verify all his claims, but even if half of them are true, you should eat your words.

http://remainsofthedesi.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/ancient-indian-geekstheir-discoveries-that-changed-da-world/

And don't forget all the highly intelligent Indians, (many of whom are vegetarian) that kick butt when it comes to getting masters degrees, PhD's, winning spelling bees, and running businesses.

To be fair though, meat did help our wayback ancestors survive, but now we don't need it now to survive or be healthy, (except in some geographical areas). We are the only animal that can show compassion towards other animals. This sets us apart from other creatures.

On the other hand, it's sad that we're so stupid that we overhunt and overfish animals to extinction. It's pure gluttony and greed.

[Brien Comerford]

There are over 200 million vegetarian Hindus, Jains and Buddhists in India. The latter is the world's largest Democracy and it's on the verge of becoming a superpower thanks to millions of intelligent and productive Hindu vegetarians.

[Izabllle Dormatie]

What a shame for humanity. This innocent creature must have been very sad to suffer a fate like this.

[Tim]

I just don't understand the hand-wringing anti-human anti-evolutionary anti-carnivore conservationists.

What this article/discovery demonstrates is Darwinian evolution at its most basic level. Human-kind using its superior hunter/gatherer skills and omnivore digestive ability to survive and thrive and become the successful dominant species.

Please stop whining about extinction. Species have been going extinct for millions of years before we arrived. For every extant species there are thousands of extinct ones.

We should be proud of our success not ashamed.

[Matthew Juergens]

It is pretty awesome that occasionally things like this happen it not only aids the world of biology but anthropology as well. we learn of how ancient creatures were and lets us hypothesize on how our ancient relatives lived to affect these great creatures

[gerry]

I love this kind of article. It tells me that there is a giant clam of an ancient species that has just been discovered. It tells me that there is a global clam expert from the Philippines. The implication of overfishing by mankind was over 100,000 years ago, not today, so I don't feel made more guilty about being human.

Particularly interesting is that this article ties in with the idea that man may have evolved as an "aquatic ape", in other words, it did not come down from the trees and start walking on the Savannah, but was probably coastal or lakeshore and was combining the use of trees and lake/sea for the advantage of dual food sources and dual escape routes from predators. (This explains why man evolved to be hairless, because the only hairless mammals are aquatic. It also explains how man developed to walk on two legs, because in water, an ape would have had assistance from the buoyancy. And human babies are more easily birthed in water, and have natural swimming instincts, etc..

[Ketto]

I'm all for letting people do their own thing (not compulsory, but libertarian as in the freedom we're supposed to have) and such, and I like the idea of not killing *everything*... but some of you guys are so fruitcakey with the whole idea that I root against you just on principle.

Stop trying to give penguins the right to vote or whatever stupid crap you're going for.

[keith bentham]

The human digestive tract, gut and teeth show man is actually a fruitarian, the same as great apes. Apes occasionally hunt and eat monkeys but only rarely.
All carnivorous animals die of cancer initiated by amino acid decay. Meat is also the main contributory factor in human cancer.
Farming animals is also the worse contribution to global warming; methane is 60 times worse than co2.
Vegetarianism should be globally compulsory.

[Antonia Gibbs]

Note to Brien: Nature designed Man as an omnivore. We were eating meat long before all your silly religions were invented.

[Meatist]

If your an evolutionist, then survival of the fittest tells me the clam was not fit...tasty, but not fit.

Also, watch out If the socialists find out about this, we might have affirmative action for the clams or worse we might have to pay reparations.

In response to Brein, why not be forthright and say what you mean? In your "no right" rant, you seem to be equating humans and clams. Further, you are a species-ist for eating plants and not animals...such intolerance!

[kidbuck]

"Millions of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Seventh Day Adventists live long and healthy lives as a result of their vegetarian/vegan diets."

Seems like proof that we need animal protein to encourage brain activity. Name the good ideas or inventions any of these meataphobes have had. Show me a single meataphobe society that's wasn't lifted out of its stoneage primitivism by meat eaters.

[K Yu]

I sick and tired of rantings in the press and academia about climate change and assortment of other damage that have been attributed to human behaviour.

Perhaps the evolution of man is a big 'mistake'.

[steve]

UMMMMMM man I can picture that along side a 5lb bucket of melted butter. Yummy.

[Brien Comerford]

Fishing and overfishing in particular are an abomination. Millions of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Seventh Day Adventists live long and healthy lives as a result of their vegetarian/vegan diets. Mankind has no right to invade marine habitats to massacre fish and decimate aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity.

[Esther]

Mmmmm.... giant clams... delicious!