Shellfish aquaculture operations can provide a variety of beneficial services beyond food production. Cultured shellfish have been increasingly incorporated into nutrient management strategies due to their ability to assimilate nutrients into their tissue and shell as they feed and grow. Enhancement of denitrification associated with oyster aquaculture has also been documented in the scientific literature. Shellfish aquaculture gear also creates complex structure, and a variety of life stages of recreationally and commercially important fish species have been observed exhibiting habitat-related behaviors such as foraging, shelter seeking, and reproduction in association with aquaculture gear. Other environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits associated with shellfish aquaculture have also been documented to varying degrees in the literature.
Despite the growing body of evidence that aquaculture operations can consistently provide beneficial services, the current aquaculture permitting framework largely focuses on an assessment of possible adverse effects to various environmental and socioeconomic factors. Engagement with resource managers suggests this is likely because adverse effects are often easier to quantify and document than beneficial effects, and variability in aquaculture production practices can limit managers in their ability to make defensible assumptions on the types and extent of beneficial effects a proposed operation may provide. In addition, not all aspects of the current aquaculture review/permitting framework allow for, or easily lend themselves to, a synergistic evaluation of adverse and beneficial effects during the aquaculture review/permitting process.
Through a combination of engagement with resource managers and industry, synthesis of the existing literature and policy, and collection of regionally-relevant data via ongoing research programs in the Northeast region, we have begun to: 1. Identify and describe mechanisms within the current federal and state level aquaculture review/permitting framework that may allow for, or limit, the consideration of beneficial services into aquaculture management and permitting decisions; 2. Understand where current data may already support consideration of beneficial services, and what additional data may be needed to build confidence within the management community; and, 3. Develop information and end products that are accurate and easy for managers and growers to use to facilitate greater inclusion of beneficial effects in the aquaculture review/permitting framework.
We will discuss the results from initial outreach with resource managers to share information on existing regionally-relevant research and literature related to nutrient and habitat provisioning from shellfish aquaculture and data gaps, and the existing regulatory mechanisms and the types of tools/end-products that may support greater consideration of beneficial services associated with shellfish aquaculture in the aquaculture permitting and review process.