''Buccinum undatum'', the common whelk or the waved buccinum, is a large, edible marine gastropod in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Acc ...

, the "true whelks".Fraussen, K.; Gofas, S. (2014). Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138878 on 2015-02-18

Distribution

This species is a familiar part of the marine

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

of the

Northern Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

and is found on the shores of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, various other northwest European countries, some

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

islands, and North America as far south as

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. They prefer colder temperatures, and cannot survive at temperatures above 29 °C.Ten Hallers-Tjabbes, C.C., Everaarts, J.M., Mensink, B.P., & Boon, J.P. (1996) The Decline of the North Sea Whelk (''Buccinum undatum'' L.) between 1970 and 1990: A Natural or Human-induced Event? 17:1-3. pp. 333-43. ''Marine Ecology''.

Habitat

This species is mainly found on soft bottoms in the

sublittoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal area ...

zone, and occasionally on the

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

fringe, where it is sometimes found alive at low tide. It does not adapt well to life in the intertidal zone, due to its intolerance for low salinities. If exposed to air, it may crawl from its shell, risking desiccation.

Shell

This species' solid, ovate-conical, ventricose shell is very pale, white, yellowish or reddish. In life, the shell is covered in a bright, yellowish-brown periostracum. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

contains seven or eight whorls. These are convex and crossed by oblique folds, thick and waved. The shell surface has a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

of vertical, wavy folds (hence the name ''undatum'', which means wavy). The wavy folds are crossed by numerous incised, very prominent spiral lines, some of which are paired. The white and very large

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

of the shell is broadly oval and tapers to a deeply notched siphonal canal. The outer lip is arched. The maximum height of the shell is 10 cm and the maximum width is 6 cm. The animal emits a thin and copious

slime Slime may refer to: Biology * Slime mold, a broad term often referring to roughly six groups of Eukaryotes * Biofilm, an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells adhere to each other and/or to a surface * Slimy (fish), also known as the pony ...

. This species is very variable in size, and also in its form, which is more or less inflated. In many cases the oblique folds are not apparent, and sometimes the transverse striae have wholly disappeared. The epidermis is of a deep brown. It varies also in its coloring, which in some specimens is of a bright yellow or violet, surrounded with one or several reddish bands.Kiener (1840). General species and iconography of recent shells: comprising the Massena Museum, the collection of Lamarck, the collection of the Museum of Natural History, and the recent discoveries of travellers; Boston: W.D. Ticknor,1837
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Trophic connections

This species of whelk feeds on live bivalves, and are, in turn, preyed upon by several fish (

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

, dogfish, etc.) and

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

. They may benefit from

seastar Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

feeding, by eating the extracted bivalve remains abandoned by the seastar.

Parasites

Larval stages of '' Stephanostomum baccatum'' were found in the

digestive gland The hepatopancreas, digestive gland or midgut gland is an organ of the digestive tract of arthropods and molluscs. It provides the functions which in mammals are provided separately by the liver and pancreas, including the production of digestive e ...

of ''B. undatum''.

As a food item

''Buccinum undatum'' is eaten widely, sometimes referred to by its French name ''bulot''. A strong fishery exists on many shores around the world. They are trapped in pots using dogfish and brown crab as bait. It can be confused with '' Neptunea antiqua'' (red whelk), which is poisonous to humans.

Ecology and population decline

Disappearing or diminishing populations of whelks have been observed since the early 1970s, especially in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

and the Wadden Sea. Additionally, vast beds of empty shells have been discovered where no living whelks are present.

Imposex Imposex is a disorder in sea snails caused by the toxic effects of certain marine pollutants. These pollutants cause female sea snails (marine gastropod molluscs) to develop male sex organs such as a penis and a vas deferens. Imposex inducing subs ...

, the occurrence of male gonads on female whelks, has been detected since the early 1990s, and is thought to be a product of the shipping industry. Specifically, TBT has been shown to reduce viability of whelk populations.Mensink, B.P., Everaarts, J.M., Kralt, H., ten Hallers-Tjabbes, C.C., & Boon, J.P. (1996) Tributyltin exposure in early life stages induces the development of male sexual characteristics in the common whelk, ''Buccinum undatum''. 42: 1-4. pp. 151-154. ''Marine Environmental Research''. Common whelk egg cases can be found washed up on the intertidal zone of beaches, and are colloquially known as sea wash balls.

References

External links

MarLIN: The Marine Life Information Network for Britain & Ireland
* R. Tucker Abbott & Percy A. Morris, 1995, ''Shells of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the West Indies'', Houghton Mifflin, Boston * ARKiv

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21116 Buccinidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Extant Rupelian first appearances Rupelian species first appearances