Fluorescent Staining for Detecting Larvae of the Japanese Scallops Mizuhopecten Yessoensis

Abstract

In farming Japanese scallops Mizuhopecten yessoensis, larvae investigation and efficient seed collection are very important processes. During yearly larvae investigation from May to June, fishery managers count the number of larvae and measure the shell size. Identification technology has been developed using immunostaining to mark scallops. The resulting fluorescence images contain both fluorescence-stained and autofluorescent larvae. However, there is currently no technology for evaluating these images automatically, so the experts have to perform these tasks manually.
Our overall aim is to develop a system for automatically measuring the number and size of scallops. In this paper, we propose a method for detecting fluorescence-stained larva and measuring the items in the fluorescence images. We will present the experimental results and discuss the effectiveness of the proposed method. We will also introduce an application that facilitates measurement of scallops.