Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** oyster farming provides significant…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** oyster farming provides significant social and economic values in coastal communities. More recently, there is growing awareness of its environmental value. Farmed oysters require minimal energy and feed, filter a significant volume of water, and remove carbon and nutrients from the sea at harvest. Growers, however, face increasingly urgent threats from environmental change, directly or indirectly attributable to climate change, that will likely become more significant in the future. These environmental stressors create the potential for large reductions in shellfish yields in the years ahead. Urgent research is needed to apply the knowledge in shellfish genetics and breeding to large-scale efforts to advance the aquaculture industry and improve farmed stock for oyster growers.there is growing evidence that crossbreeding, a breeding innovation contributing to the massive improvement for major land crops, can substantially improve yields for the pacific oyster, the largest crop in theu.s. West coast shellfish industry. The primary goal of this sbir phase II project is to develop non-GMO, hybrid oysters optimized for different growing conditions through crossbreeding and rigorous on-farm trials. Different hybrid oysters will be evaluated for the entire production cycle from developmental stages in the hatchery, through two growing seasons, to harvest. Experimental animals will be deployed at multiple farm sites to evaluate the impact of various ocean conditions on the performance of farmed stocks. This proposal builds on proven cases of hybrid vigor in marine bivalve shellfishand established facilities and resources of pacific hybreed. Anticipated outcomes of this research will provide the aquaculture industry optimized hybrid seedto capitalize on benefits of hybrid vigor and to establish important biological resources for the research community.