Cooperative research to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by farm-raised oysters used for reef enhancement (Phase 2)

Objectives

The objectives are to:

1. Partner with the Alabama Marine Resources Division and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to identify appropriate sites to place oysters.

2. Work with the oyster farming industries in Alabama and Mississippi to provide 269,595 farm-raised oysters for enhancement.

3. Monitor the farmed oysters’ growth and survival and the ecosystem services they provide.

4. Conduct stakeholder engagement about the program.

Methodology

This proposal is to fund Phase 2 of a two-part oyster reef enhancement and evaluation project in Alabama and Mississippi. MASGC will use $75,000 of the COVID-19 rapid response funding provided by the National Sea Grant Office to implement Phase 2. As described in the narrative, the Phase 1 funding using MASGC’s aquaculture supplemental funding will be used to implement the Base Program and the COVID-19 funding for Phase 2 will be used to implement Plus Program. This project will use existing commercial oyster production to provide valuable ecosystem services such as provisioning, nitrogen removal, shoreline protection and habitat creation for the public, while also providing an important secondary market for oyster farmers in Alabama and Mississippi. Typically, commercial oyster farmers raise some mixture of diploid and triploid (non-reproductive) native Eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, to approximately 3” in length. These oysters are intended primarily for the live, half shell market. The purpose of this project is to test the value of the larger, single oysters for enhancement ‘jump starters’, large oysters (3+” in length) will be purchased from licensed commercial oyster farmers in Alabama and Mississippi and deployed at sites established by the respective state agencies, with associated reference sites where no oysters are deployed. The goal of this cooperative research proposal is to determine the effectiveness of farm-raised oysters as a means of oyster reef enhancement. Participating oyster farmers will provide the oysters to the appropriate state agencies (AL Marine Resources Division and MS Department of Marine Resources) for deployment at designated sites. Working in cooperation with the state agencies, the sites will be selected and monitored by Auburn University Shellfish Lab (AUSL) personnel to assess oyster growth and survival, natural recruitments, and estimates of associated ecosystem services.

Rationale

Periodically, prolonged closures due to various reasons (e.g., harmful algal blooms, prolonged freshwater inputs) force commercial farmers to grow the oysters past the desired market size and potentially produce a glut in the market when re-opening occurs. The current COVID-19 crisis has led to an almost complete cessation of sales for over a month, leading to substantial production of larger product and an opportunity for collaboration.