Legume nodulation

Are giant clams endangered? Giant clam species are extinct or in danger of extinction in many parts of their distributions, despite being listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The shells of the smaller species are often found in shell and tourist shops around the world. The large species have been fished commercially around the IndoPacific region at appalling levels by ‘clam boats’. The market is for their adductor muscle, the large muscle that closes and holds the shells together. It weighs about 900 g in large clams and between 100–400 t of this muscle meat were landed in Taiwan each year over a 9-year period. This corresponds to about 300,000 clams/year and a total harvest of millions over two decades of illegal fishing. We are custodians of the largest bivalved animal that has ever lived and the Great Barrier Reef is the only region where its survival is assured.