Thermal tolerance of the invasive oyster Crassostrea gigas: Feasibility of heat treatment as an antifouling option

Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas are traditionally considered shellfish of great fishery and aquaculture value. For these reasons they are introduced worldwide. Recently there has been increasing reports about the prevalence of C. gigas as biofouling organism in cooling water systems. In the absence of relevant data on the susceptibility of oysters to commonly employed antifouling techniques such as heat treatment, it was presumed that oysters would be controlled by treatment programmes directed against other major fouling organisms. The present study was carried out to test the above hypothesis, and results showed that C. gigas has an upper temperature tolerance that is much higher than other major marine fouling animals including blue mussel Mytilus edulis. Apparently, temperature regimes presently used in heat treatment of cooling water systems fouled by mussels need to be increased, if C. gigas are to be controlled effectively. Our results also indicate that previous exposure of C. gigas to sublethal high temperatures could make them more resistant to subsequent thermal treatment, an aspect that should be taken into account when heat treatment is used as a fouling control option against oyster fouling.