On many corals reefs in the Indo-Pacific, the larger species of giant clams (Tridacnidae) have either been eliminated or fished down to the point where the external fertilization of gametes is improbable. In the mid 1980s, several countries, donors, and regional and international research organizations set out to redress this problem by developing technology to propagate juvenile giant clams in hatcheries and re-establish them in the wild.