(OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss.) – The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) has been selected to receive funding to create an Oyster Farming Resilience Index, a self-assessment to help oyster farmers identify their vulnerabilities and ultimately minimize the negative impacts from a variety of disaster situations. The project is part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Sea Grant effort to address COVID-19 impacts to the seafood industry.
“Increasing the Resilience of Oyster Farms to Disasters” will receive $197,613 in federal funding to create the index, facilitate its use among members of the oyster farming community, identify areas that lack capacity, and deliver engagement and education programs that will better equip the industry in addressing common vulnerabilities.
MASGC Director LaDon Swann, who will lead the project, said economic, environmental, technological and human-health disasters almost always have a negative impact on the seafood industry.
“We believe careful planning and follow-up efforts to address oyster farm vulnerabilities will lead to farm management practices that will mitigate the disruptions caused by disasters,” he said.
The project was selected for funding through a national competition among Sea Grant College Programs. The 13 selected projects will be awarded a total of $2.9 million for up to two years of implementation. Grant recipients must match 50 percent of the funding with non-federal funds.
All projects will address ongoing and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on seafood resources and strategies to increase the resilience of the coastal and Great Lakes seafood resources sector to respond to future disruptions.
The Oyster Farming Resilience Index will add to Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant’s current suite of resilience indices, which includes the Coastal Community Resilience Index, the Tourism Resilience Index, the Fisheries Resilience Index and the Ports and Harbors Resilience Index. These self-assessments predict if the sectors are prepared to maintain operations after a disaster, and they identify strengths and weaknesses, which may increase resilience.
“Sea Grant supports sustainable seafood and the coastal and Great Lakes communities whose livelihoods and economies depend on seafood,” said National Sea Grant Director Jonathan Pennock. “As businesses and communities recover from the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, these projects will provide valuable knowledge and new resources to help strengthen the U.S. seafood industry now and into the future.”