The President of Chulabhorn Research Institute is concerned about the villagers who earn their living by fishing, especially those who breed shellfish. Her Royal Highness would like them to develop their production potential to be able to compete with other countries in the world market. Therefore, the Office of Special Activities, Chulabhorn Research Institute, has cooperated with Department of Fisheries and other agencies to study and do research on breeding of economic shellfish in Thailand, especially scallops and oysters. The result will finally be introduced to villagers who are interested in breeding shellfish as an occupation.

Shellfish breeding is another major income earning occupation. The export of shellfish can bring a large amount of money to the country annually. At the same time, pattern of shellfish breeding in Thailand still follows the traditional method and lacking development of new technique. It is, therefore, necessary to raise and develop the quality of the shellfish breeding technique. Moreover, there are many other types of potential shellfish in Thailand that are in great demand both in domentic and international markets, but the country still lacks continuous and intensive development of those species.

In the area where good quality shellfish can be bred, water is a main factor to the production. In a comparison of the two coastlines of Thailand, the Gulf of Thailand is a closed sea with a large amount of accumulated sediment from the shore, whereas the Andaman Sea is an open sea with less accumulated sediment. Hence, the Andaman coastline is more suitable to conduct an experiment on the breeding of species of shellfish that require clean water.

For this reason, Chulabhorn Research Institute, in collaboration with Royal Thai Navy and Department of Fisheries, has explored the Andaman coastline to select a site suitable for setting up studying and experiment center for shellfish breeding. Out of many places, Ko Lanta in Krabi Province has been selected, since it is suitable in terms of both water quality and infrastructure. It is also not too far from community area. These qualifications fit the specifications of the project, which require a site with good water to product quality shellfish, situated not for form communities, and convenient for introducing knowledge to villagers who are interested in breeding shellfish as their occupation.

Initially, Chulabhorn Research Institute has selected scallops (Chlamys senatoria) for experimental breeding, since the breeding of this species of shellfish is still not as widespread in Thailand. Most of the scallops sold in the market are obtained from nature or imported from overseas.

Chulabhorn Research Institute has set up a field station as a temporary office at Lo Yai Village, a fishing village in Tambon Ko Lanta Noi, Amphoe Ko Lanta, Krabi Province, with the cooperation of the villagers and agencies in Krabi. Personnel were sent to be stationed in the area, and an enclosure for experimental breeding of shellfish was completed in September 2002

In October 2002, Chulabhorn Research Institute transferred young scallops provided by Department of Fisheries through Prachuap Khiri Khan Coastal Research and Development Center for breeding at the site The experiment was closely supervised by academics from Department of Fisheries and Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University. The results after six months showed that the scallops had a good rat of growth with average height of the shell at five centimeters, which meet the standard growth. Even though most of the scallops died as a result of uncontroll factors, the early result of the experiment was satisfactory.

A new set of experiment has been carried out to improve the breeding method. For its further plan of operation, the Institute will begin study on breeding other species of shellfish along with the scallops to compare production of various kind of shellfish.