Bivalve farming can also contribute to gender equality in coastal communities, as women are able to work in aquaculture because the farms typically are located close to the coast.

If you’re a rock-boring bivalve, you can use that to your advantage because you can grind at the rock, and then the water you’re pulling in can take all of that rock debris away,” Collins said.

The epifauna on the shells of a subtidal population of the bivalve Pinna bicolor is composed mainly of encrusting bryozoans and serpulid polychaetes, with tunicates and sponges relatively uncommon.