Cockle is a bivalve belonging to the family Arcidae. It is indigenous to the intertidal mudflats bordering the coastal regions of many southeast Asian countries particulary Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Locally it is known as ‘kerang’. It has been one of important fisheries commodities in Indonesia for many years. The landings of cockle from 1979 rose to a peak of 48 926 mt in 1984, and decreased to 30 959 mt in 1985 (Table 1). The value of the fishery has arisen steadily from Rp1 140 million in 1979 to Rp6 147 million in 1984 and droped to Rp2 991 in 1985. The drop of cockle production of Indonesia in 1985 is mainly the fall in landing of cockle in North sumatra and Riau (Table 2) which may results in the heavy utilization of the cockle resource present in areas. This suggests that the exploitation of the resource needs to be rationalized to obtain optimal yield. It can not further depend on the wild population and artisanal fisheries. Some forms of culture as practiced in neighboring countries should be introduced in order to make maximum use of the resource to meet the increasing demand of the population of Indonesia.
In Indonesia cockle (Anadara granosa Fig.1) is found abundance in coastal zone in West Sumatra, South Java, Malacca Strait, East Java, North Java, Bali, East Nusatenggara, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East kalimantan, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Maluku and Irain Jaya.
