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Snails

Oregon Triton Photograph courtesy of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering To link to their webpage click here.

Click here to view photos of other snail species

Aquaculture Potential Although there are 40,000 species throughout the world, this page will highlight some of the general aspects of the common snails in the Pacific Northwest. Marine snails are sometimes collected for food, but they are not escargot, which are terrestrial snails (Anderson 2001). Roland Anderson (2001) described the following snail species as being successful in aquariums: Species Characteristics Oregon Triton (Fusitriton oregonensis) Commons species; grows up to 10 cm; has a "hairy" shell; eats chopped clams in aquariums Calliostoma species Have purple bands around shell; omnivorous; will eat kelp, diatoms, hydroids, bryozoans, anemones, and clams Moon Snail (Polinices lewisii) Grows to 15 cm; burrows in sand searching for food; eats clams Turban Snails (Tegula and Astraea genus) Herbivorous (can eat fresh or frozen algae); Astrea have been kept for over ten years in an aquarium. Whelks Predatory snails (eat barnacles and mussels) Periwinkles (Littorina species) Small (0.6 cm); eats algae growing on the water/air interface on sides of aquariums Purple Olive Snail Grows to 2.5 cm; very colorful; burrows in sand; scavengers (bivalves, crabs, clams)

General Information about Snails

U.S. Range in the Pacific Ocean	World-wide distribution (Anderson 2001)
Habitat	Terrestrial, marine, and freshwater (Anderson 2001)
Description of Eggs	Most lay an egg mass (Anderson 2001)
Adult Food Preference	Some species are carnivorous (Clams, Oysters, Mussels, Barnacles) while others are strictly herbivorous (Algae), some consume Detritus (Anderson 2001)
Ornamental Market	Cold water species do well in captivity (Anderson 2001)
Additional Remarks	Some snail species are predatory on other species of snails (Anderson 2001)

Recent Wild Harvest Data for Oregon
Data from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Year	Total Catch (Pounds)	Ex-vessel Value ( U.S. Dollars)
1989	N/A	N/A
1990	N/A	N/A
1991	N/A	N/A
1992	N/A	N/A
1993	N/A	N/A
1994	N/A	N/A
1995	N/A	N/A
1996	N/A	N/A
1997	N/A	N/A
1998	N/A	N/A

Brown Turban Snail Photo courtesy of John Pearse

Checkered Periwinkle Photo courtesy of John Pearse

Dogwhelk Snail Photo courtesy of John Pearse

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© 2003 Stephen Sempier