Aquaculture 2022

February 28 - March 4, 2022

San Diego, California

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE FOR SHELLFISH AQUACULTURE IN WILLAPA BAY AND GRAYS HARBOR

 

Nicole Naar*, Laura Butler, Bobbi Hudson

 

 Washington Sea Grant

 University of Washington

3716 Brooklyn Avenue N.E.

Seattle, WA 98105-6716

 



The Washington Coast Shellfish Aquaculture Study (WCSAS)  was a 3-year project funded by the Washington State Legislature to sustain shellfish aquaculture in the estuaries under changing environmental conditions by establishing a collaborative, ecosystem-based management framework .  Ending in late 2019, the project  emerged from a confluence of long-standing but continually evolving issues facing shellfish farmers and resource managers in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, specifically the challenges posed by (1) interactions between shellfish aquaculture and eelgrass and (2) burrowing shrimp management. In this talk, we will discuss project outputs and outcomes , the impacts of COVID on project objectives and working group process, and the status, goals, and next of the emerging EBM collaborative.