Growth of Mactra veneriformis was investigated during the period from March 1990 to February 1991 in the coast of Kunsan.
The water temperatures of the study place ranged from 26.3℃ to 2.8℃. The bottom soil temperature of the study site ranged from 36.2℃ to 0.7℃.
Based on the monthly variation of marginal growth rate (MGR') of the shell, it was suggested that ring formation occurred in March to April once a year and takes approximately 9 months (0.75 old ages) for first ring to be formed in the shell.
The relationship between the shell length (SL) and the total weight (TW) was represented by the following equation;
TW = 1.090 × 10-4 SL3.2798 (r2=0.99).
and also the relationship between the shell length (SL) and the shell height (SH) and the shell width (SW) were represented by the following equations
SH = 0.865 SL + 0.250 (r2=0.99)
SW = 0.599 SL - 0.203 (r2=0.98; <22㎜),
SW = 0.724 SL - 2.796 (r2=0.91; 22 ㎜≤)
Growth curves for shell length and total weight fitted to von Bertalanffy's equation were expressed as;
,
