WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2024 51 number of different native species in the Pacific Northwest including oysters, abalone and kelp (PSRF 2024). A key component to this organization’s captive breeding success has been a collaboration with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center Manchester Research Station (NOAA Fisheries 2023) that has primarily focused on research to support commercial aquaculture. Via a cooperative research and development agreement with NOAA, the Kenneth K. Chew Center for Shellfish Research and Restoration was built at NOAA’s Manchester Research Station (Figure 2). The infrastructure of this research station provides and maintains seawater facilities including the supply of 9000 Lpm of filtered and UV treated seawater. Facilities like these are sizable hurdles to overcome for conservation aquaculture organizations in terms of permitting and capital investments. PSRF also lists 20 commercial aquaculture operations as aiding in their conservation goals. This is an example of how aquaculture industry resources can be leveraged to enable the execution of conservation goals. Ecosystem Services The role of ecosystem services delivered via commercial aquaculture is still a developing science but nonetheless something that conservation organizations are increasingly interested in. Around 85% of oyster reefs globally have vanished due to a variety of factors including overharvesting, disease, pollution, development and climate change. These reefs provided habitat for countless marine organisms, buffered shorelines from erosion, and filtered excess nutrients from water. Perhaps unsurprisingly, restoring these is in the interest of conservation organizations, specifically The Nature Conservancy and PEW Charitable Trust, who have implemented the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) program (The Nature Conservancy 2024). This program was born out of the COVID pandemic when oyster farmers had an oversupply of oysters and these organizations sought to work with oyster farmers to outplant their oysters into the wild to aid in restoring oyster reefs and the ecosystem services they provide. Past environmentally unsustainable aquaculture practices likely led to conservation organizations’ skepticism of the industry and their primary mode of engagement being how to assist commercial aquaculture in becoming less impactful on the environment. Encouragingly however, is the reality that commercial aquaculture has matured as an industry that can now help conservation groups attain their own environmental goals through conservation aquaculture using a variety of industry resources like expertise, scale, infrastructure, and ecosystem services. Given that aquaculture development in the U.S. has long suffered from negative public perception due to perceived negative environmental impacts this evolution of roles and partnerships between the industry and conservation organizations could very well aid in changing the minds of the U.S public on aquaculture. Notes Luke Gardner, California Sea Grant, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA. lgardner@ucsd.edu This contribution is provided on behalf of the US Aquaculture Society. References Froehlich, Halley E., Rebecca R. Gentry, and Benjamin S. Halpern. “Conservation Aquaculture: Shifting the Narrative and Paradigm of Aquaculture’s Role in Resource Management.” Biological Conservation 215 (November 1, 2017): 162–68. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.09.012. Hayes, Jessica L. “Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute - Saving White Abalone,” June 6, 2017. https://marinescience.ucdavis.edu/ white-abalone. NOAA Fisheries. “Manchester Research Station, Northwest Fisheries Science Center | NOAA Fisheries.” NOAA, October 17, 2023. West Coast. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/about/manchester-researchstation-northwest-fisheries-science-center. ORRAA. “Climate Smart Shrimp Initiative.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://oceanriskalliance.org/project/climate-smart-shrimpinitiative/. Puget Sound Restoration Fund. “Conservation Hatchery.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://restorationfund.org/programs/hatchery/. Ridlon, April D., Edwin D. Grosholz, Boze Hancock, Margaret W. Miller, Aric Bickel, Halley E. Froehlich, Diego Lirman, et al. “Culturing for Conservation: The Need for Timely Investments in Reef Aquaculture.” Frontiers in Marine Science 10 (April 25, 2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1069494. The Nature Conservancy. “SOAR: Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://www.nature.org/ en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/provide-food-and-water-sustainably/ food-and-water-stories/oyster-covid-relief-restoration/. WWF Seafood Sustainability. “Aquaculture.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://seafoodsustainability.org/aquaculture/. NOAA Fisheries. “Manchester Research Station, Northwest Fisheries Science Center | NOAA Fisheries.” NOAA, October 17, 2023. West Coast. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/about/manchester-researchstation-northwest-fisheries-science-center. Froehlich, Halley E., Rebecca R. Gentry, and Benjamin S. Halpern. “Conservation Aquaculture: Shifting the Narrative and Paradigm of Aquaculture’s Role in Resource Management.” Biological Conservation 215 (November 1, 2017): 162–68. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.09.012. Hayes, Jessica L. “Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute - Saving White Abalone,” June 6, 2017. https://marinescience.ucdavis.edu/ white-abalone. ORRAA. “Climate Smart Shrimp Initiative.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://oceanriskalliance.org/project/climate-smart-shrimpinitiative/. Puget Sound Restoration Fund. “Conservation Hatchery.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://restorationfund.org/programs/hatchery/. Ridlon, April D., Edwin D. Grosholz, Boze Hancock, Margaret W. Miller, Aric Bickel, Halley E. Froehlich, Diego Lirman, et al. “Culturing for Conservation: The Need for Timely Investments in Reef Aquaculture.” Frontiers in Marine Science 10 (April 25, 2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1069494. The Nature Conservancy. “SOAR: Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://www.nature.org/ en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/provide-food-and-water-sustainably/ food-and-water-stories/oyster-covid-relief-restoration/. WWF Seafood Sustainability. “Aquaculture.” Accessed September 3, 2024. https://seafoodsustainability.org/aquaculture/.
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