Year: 2022
Project(s):
Relevance
The oyster populations in coastal Mississippi have been decimated in recent years due to a confluence of adverse environmental factors. The populations are so low that there is no longer oyster harvesting in state waters. State agencies, such as the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, have access to restoration funds to help the oyster populations recover and wish to apply the best available science to their decision-making process.
Response
The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium collaborated with the Mississippi-based RESTORE Act Center of Excellence, which had invested in research to better understand the Mississippi Sound. MASGC developed and led an event in which researchers shared their latest findings with resource managers and focused on specific restoration sites the resource managers were interested in restoring.
Results
The discussions at the event influenced the resource agencies decisions on prioritizing specific sites for restoration investments. Without this event, it is likely the research results and latest scientific discoveries from these projects would not have been considered in the site prioritization process.
Recap
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant led an event that collected input from researchers to identify the feasibility of restoring oysters on historical reefs, which state agencies used to inform where to invest millions of dollars in oyster restoration funds. (2022)