Roger Mann and Juli Harding
Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Rapa whelk educational materials still available

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Veined Rapa Whelks: Aliens in the Chesapeake, a multimedia CD ROM that complements and reinforces concepts presented in Rundown on the Rapa and Rundown on the Rapa Activity Booklet for Educators. Rundown on the Rapa explains what rapa whelks are, where they came from, and why they are of concern in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Rundown on the Rapa Activity Booklet for Educators provides hands-on classroom activities that can be used to reinforce concepts discussed in Rundown on the Rapa. These three publications are part of our VORTEX program for science educators. Additional details including ordering information are available from the VIMS VORTEX home page.

Bounty program continues through 2005

Even with the progress we have made in describing the distribution and abundance of these animals in local waters since August 1998, much more remains to be done. To that end, the bounty program remains in effect: we continue to pay $5 per live rapa whelk and $2 per dead rapa whelk or empty rapa whelk shell provided that the animal's collection location and method are reported when the whelk is donated. Live animals are more useful to us than dead ones, but all donations are appreciated.

The t-shirt bounty program option for individuals that donate 10 or more whelks is still available. Rapa whelk t-shirts are available instead of the $5 per live animal and $2 per animal for dead animals or empty shells for individuals that donate 10 or more whelks. We still have cotton short-sleeved t-shirts in two colors and three sizes (adult L, XL, XXL). If you would like to receive a rapa whelk t-shirt instead of bounty money, please make this request when whelks are given to VIMS personnel. We will keep a tally of whelks donated in our records and send a t-shirt for every 10 whelks received per individual. Please do not hold animals for long periods of time; they are much more valuable to us alive than dead.

The success of our bounty program is entirely due to the individuals and seafood processors that continue to contribute animals and information. We are extremely grateful to them for their interest and participation; on behalf of our entire staff: THANK YOU!!!

Distribution of the species in the Chesapeake Bay

The bulk of the more than 10,000 rapa whelks that have been collected in the bounty program have been collected in the area south of New Point Comfort extending to the Bay mouth including the James River below Deep Creek and the Warwick River. A single adult rapa whelk was collected near Tangier Light during Winter 2005. It remains to be seen if this animal is indicative of an established population of whelks in this region. View current distribution map.

All live animals are in our wet lab at this time. They being used as follows:

1. Since 1998, our broodstock animals have laid egg masses from mid-May through mid-August each year. We are continuing a series of multi-factorial feeding, growth, and development experiments with pelagic larval forms, recently settled benthic animals, and juvenile whelks.
2. We continue to maintain a population of wild-caught adult rapa whelks obtained through the VIMS bounty program. This population of wild whelks is monitored regularly and provides information on feeding, egg production, and growth rates for large animals across seasonal scales.
3. A small number of adult rapa whelk shells have been set aside to fill requests from educational and museum sources to resource agencies. We have filled all requests received as of September 1, 2005 and welcome any additional requests for educational purposes.

Status of data to date from larval and laboratory studies

Six peer reviewed manuscripts describing our rapa whelk research have been published. A seventh has been accepted for publication.

Several more manuscripts are in preparation; we anticipate that they will be in review by late spring. We made presentations on our rapa whelk research at the Fourth International Larval Biology Conference (June 2000, Santa Cruz, CA), the Fourth International Conference on Shellfish Restoration (November 2000, Hilton Head, SC), the Second International Bioinvasions Meeting (April 2001, New Orleans, LA), the Eleventh International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species (February 2002, Alexandria, VA), the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Baltimore, MD (August 18-22, 2002), the northeastern Eyes on the Estuaries meeting (November 2002, Boston, MA) and the Third International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions in La Jolla, CA during March 2003.

What else is ahead?

1. Our field collections to date have been assisted by a bounty fund supported by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia Sea Grant Program, Virginia Commercial Fishing Development Fund, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have developed a network of watermen and processors who participate in the collection process.
2. We will continue to collect egg masses as well as adult snails from these sources in support of further early life history studies.
3. Genetic studies on Chesapeake Bay rapa whelks as part of two student thesis projects have been completed and a third is in progress. A collecting trip to Turkey in November 2000 yielded Black Sea Rapana specimens for comparative genetic and morphological analyses. Thanks again to Dr. Kadir Seyhan and his staff at the Karadeniz Techincal University in Trabzon, Turkey for hosting Ms. Mindy Gensler.
4. Our laboratory experiments and observations on adult, juvenile, and larval feeding, behavior, tolerances, and growth will continue.
5. Prey selection and predation signature studies with recently settled and young-of-the-year rapa whelks are in progress with a variety of menu items including local barnacles, mussels, soft clams, oysters, and hard clams.

Who will be doing the work?

To date the bulk of this work has been and will continue to be completed by the authors. Ms. Melissa Southworth, a Marine Scientist in the VIMS Molluscan Ecology Program will assist the authors with day to day operations as needed. Ms. Vicki Clark, also of the VIMS Marine Advisory Program, is our liason with local chefs.

Our original cohort of rapa graduate students has successfully completed their degree work. Ms. Mindy Gensler, Ms. Rebecca Green, and Ms. Erica Westcott successfully completed their Master of Science theses during 2001. Ms. Catherine Ware completed her M.S. thesis in Spring 2002. Mr. Alex Jestel completed his M.S. thesis in Spring 2003.

Culinary updates

Several rapa whelk recipes continue to be taste-tested to highly favorable local reviews. The original rapa recipe (Rapa Whelk with Linguini) by Chef Meredith Nicholls, Cafe Russo, Norfolk, VA has been supplemented by Rapa Fritters and Rapa Chowder.