Occurence of hammer oyster, Malleus albus near Nachikuppam, Chennai

Abstract

The hammer oyster, Malleus albus is placed under Class Bivalvia, Subclass Pteriomorphia, Order Pterioida, Superfamily Pteriacea, Family Malleidae. The oyster is locally called suti ali. These oysters (Fig. 1 a and b) were caught by fishermen from Nachikuppam, 1-2 km off Chennai using Nakkuvalai, a bottom set gillnet, at a depth of 5-7 fathoms. The maximum and minimum shell length was 156 mm and 77 mm and the average length and weight were 117 mm and 29 g respectively.