Twenty-six species in 11 families of polychaetes were found among fouling organisms on the floats of oyster-culture rafts, which were wrapped with chemical-fiber cloth, and have been kept under water for more than three years before examination in Kure, the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. The polychaete community included a spionid species, Polydora hoplura, which is known as a pest for bivalve and gastropod aquaculture. As a means for pest control to manage Polydora infection, a possibility should be taken into account that aquaculture rafts can be part of sources of the pests.
View full abstract