Setting Shellfish Restoration Goals To Meet Society’s Needs

Dr. Boze HancockThe Nature ConservancyGlobal Marine TeamDr. Philine zuErmgassenCambridge University, UK

Summer MorlockNOAA Restoration CenterCommunity-based

Restoration Program

Setting Shellfish Restoration Goals To Meet Society’s Needs

Many shellfish sp. declined, RI - and globallyFocus on oystersLost fisheries and other lost servicesWe know how to restore these populationsWhat do we want to gain?

Ecosystem servicesHuge economic valueInclude all services in management

Outline

zuErmgassen et al. 2012a

Change in extent - US

Loss of oyster habitat

Change in biomass - US

zuErmgassen et al. 2012a

Loss of oyster habitat

Setting Shellfish Restoration Goals To Meet Society’s Needs

Shellfish reefs & bedsAnadromous fishSalt marshSeagrassesCoralMangroveOther

Restoration TargetShellfish reefs & bedsAnadromous fish Salt marshSeagrassesCoralMangroveOther

Restoration Target

VA

FL

USVI

HI

AL

LA

CA

WA

AK ARRA

Restoration community working at restoration -15 years

Joe Fudge, Daily Press

Restoration works

Anoxic Muck Recycled Shell Community Living Reef

No longer trying to demonstrate that oyster habitat restoration works

Many examples and species

US- RI, East Coast, West Coast and Gulf of MX

(UK, Germany, Holland, Australia…)

Expand in scale

Setting Shellfish Restoration Goals To Meet Society’s Needs

Oyster Habitat – How Much Is Enough?

Present ??

What have we lost – Historic baselines

What will we gain – Ecosystem services

Joe Fudge, Daily Press

How much reef is ‘enough’?

•Chesapeake Bay Exec. Order;Restore 20 tributaries by 2025

•Chesapeake 201010 x increase over 1994 by 2010

•Puget Sound Washington100 acres by 2020

•Hudson Raritan NY/NJ500 acres by 20155000 acres by 2050

•Tampa Bay FloridaPreservation of 44 acres

•Great Bay New Hampshire20 acres by 2010

•Context ‘What is possible’

A Function of History

Goal

Regulating• Water quality

maintenance (filters)

• Protection of beaches and coastlines from storm surges and waves.

• Reduction of marsh shoreline erosion (break-waters)

• Stabilization of submerged land by trapping sediments

Provisioning• Recruits

• Subsistence and commercial fisheries

• Aquaculture

• Fertilizer and building materials (lime)

• Jewelry and other decoration (shells)

Supportive• Cycling of nutrients

• Fish productionRecruitment, Growth

Cultural• Tourism and recreation

(Fishing, WQ)

• Symbolic of coastal heritage

Photo: Diana Garland, TNC Volunteer

$$$

Water Quality = Seston Regulation / grazing

• Oysters remove nearly all particulates, not just those ingested

• Aim = measure FR• Clearance time >

Residence time – Dominant force in regulating

seston• Other variables?

Temperature effects

• FR = 8.02W0.58 e(-0.015T-27)2

Measuring filtration effect: in situ fluorometryto measure ‘seston removal’

WATER FLOW DIRECTION

Grizzle et al., 2006. JSR 25: 643-650.

Adapted from: R. Dame, 2011.zuErmgassen et al. 2012

WATER QUALITY “REGULATION” BY SHELLFISH IS FUNCTION OF ABUNDANCE

25 75 100

200

300

400

Residence Time (days)

Cle

aran

ce T

ime

(day

s)

Regulation

No Regulation

100

50

Residence TimesDelaware: 8Galveston: 15Matagorda: 38Chesapeake: 40Narragansett 27

G CMD

Nutrient Cycling

(Dame 1993)

Joe Fudge, Daily Press

Fish production

• Recruitment Enhancement

• Growth Enhancement

• Publication In Prep.

Oyster reef treatments reduce wave energy

Sediment deposition

Shoreline Protection

Online design tool

Setting Shellfish Restoration Goals To Meet Society’s Needs

Great Bay, NH

Summary

• Historic condition – scaling, what Is possible

• Quantifying and valuing ES important

• Filtration, Denitrification, Fish Production,

Shoreline Protection - as well as Fishery

• Services have value

• Manage to maximize benefits to RI

Dr. Boze HancockTNC Global Marine Teambhancock@tnc.org401 874 6121

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