Patinopecten yessoensis (Yesso scallop, Giant Ezo scallop, Ezo giant scallop) is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of scallop

Scallop

A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...

. Its name Yesso/Ezo

Ezo

is a Japanese name which historically referred to the lands to the north of Japan. It was used in various senses, sometimes meaning the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and sometimes meaning lands and waters further north in the Sea of Okhotsk, like Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands...

 refers to its being found north of Japan. They are marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 bivalve mollusks in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Pectinidae

Pectinidae

The Pectinidae are a family of bivalve mollusks including the scallop and closely related to the clam and oyster. They are hermaphrodite, and the male gonads mature first. Pectinidae can live attached by means of a filament they secrete, or are simply recumbent. Their valves can propel them...

, the scallops.

This species is found around the far eastern Asian coast, from China, Korea, Japan and Sakhalin

Sakhalin

Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...

, and possibly as far north as the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. It is aquafarmed (see Scallop aquaculture

Scallop Aquaculture

Scallop aquaculture is the commercial activity of cultivating scallops until they reach a marketable size and can be sold as a consumer product. Wild juvenile scallops, or spat, were collected for growing out in Japan as early as 1934. The first attempts to fully cultivate scallops in farm...

) in China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia, with over 1,400,000 t worth over US$373 million harvested in 2007.

Its tissues bioaccumulate algal yessotoxin

Yessotoxin

Yessotoxins are a group of lipophilic sulphated polyester) compounds that are structurally related to brevetoxins and ciguatoxins. They are produced by a number of planktonic algal species particularly the dinoflagellates, Lingulodinium polyedrum, Gonylaulax spiniferia and Protoceratium...

s, which are studied extensively.