STATE OF SCIENCE ASSESSMENT: HOW FARMING SHELLFISH IMPACTS SUBMERGED AQUATIC VEGETATION

Americans have developed what seems to be an insatiable appetite for oysters in recent years and the aquaculture industry has taken notice. In response to market opportunity, well-established oyster farms are expanding operations alongside an array of entrepreneurial growers. Many state and federal regulatory agencies are seeing a significant increase in applications for shellfish farming permits or leases. When planning for and managing aquaculture-industry development, coastal managers and regulators must weigh environmental benefits and costs along with a growing number of other activities within the coastal zone. One such conflict that is often addressed in regulatory review includes the interactions between shellfish aquaculture and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). Due to the importance of SAV as a protected resource and essential fish habitat, managers are concerned with how shellfish cultivation techniques impact sensitive SAV communities. Industry-wide monitoring reports and research findings suggest that shellfish aquaculture can have variable impacts on SAV depending on the cultivation technique and health of surrounding SAV communities. In many cases, shellfish aquaculture is identified as providing ecosystem services similar to SAV such as habitat provisioning, improving water clarity, inducing sedimentation, and carbon sequestration. This presentation will provide an update on the status of a national state-of-science assessment on shellfish aquaculture interactions with SAV, findings thus far, and a timeline for completion.