Shellfish
Top left: Janet H Brown opening the conference
Top right: Robert Rheault, director of the ESCGA
Above: Keynote speaker, Mark Spalding of TNC
dence of the role of shellfi sh as ecosystem engineers. Norbert Dankers then intro- duced the Mosselwad project, which is an in-depth study of the shellfi sh popula- tions of the sea. The session concluded with Karin Troost (IMARES, Wagenin- gen) who has done detailed work on the changes induced by invasive Crassostrea gigas. This is another complex topic – al- though biological invasions can threaten global biodiversity, she showed that gigas can also contribute to ecological complexity and restoration of biodiver- sity. Such studies are particularly useful and it was a great pity that there were not more policy makers present at the conference.
Few methods of food production produce fewer side affects than shellfish farming
The second day concentrated on the restoration and management of mobile shellfi sh, starting with two presentations from New Zealand (University of Otago) on the blackfoot paua (Tom McCowan,) and on traditional management in fi sh- eries resources (Christopher Hepburn). A novel feature was then introduced, in which delegates were given two minutes on the podium to ‘sell’ their posters – a very successful innovation. The role of oyster reefs as a habitat for fi sh was the subject of two subsequent talks, dem- onstrating that they are important in recruitment and habitat provision for certain fi sh species.
Attack
The keynote speaker for Day 2 was the director of the American East Coast Shellfi sh Growers Association (ESCGA), Robert (Skid) Rheault, who went into the attack immediately with the opening
Fish Farmer September/October 2011 36
remark that: ‘Just because I represent industry doesn’t automatically mean that I’m wrong or that I don’t care about the environment.’ He gave a very vivid talk about his own experience farming a 1-ha site, where he had received 600 letters of objection when applying for the permit to set up the farm. These made it clear that water-skiing, sailing and sew- age treatment were higher priority uses than farming oysters, even though the latter provides jobs.
He was asked to demonstrate that his farm would not be detrimental to the environment – thus faced the struggle of proving a negative. He argued eloquently that few methods of food production produced fewer adverse side effects and that there are few forms of terrestrial food production that do not have an impact on the sea. As his site became established the initialy deep bottom mud converted to a much clearer sub- strate and also recruited many fi sh and invertebrates, which were recorded by a graduate student. He provided evidence to demonstrate the benefi ts of shellfi sh farming and suggested that it could be as benefi cial and more cost effective than reef restoration.
Day 3 was devoted to oysters and, thanks to funding from The Crown Estate and Seafi sh, a number of UK shellfi sh farmers were invited. The keynote speaker, Mark Spalding, gave a fascinating talk on the global history of oysters and the tale of their population decline – The Nature Conservancy has estimated that 85 per cent of the world’s oyster reefs have gone. He gave graphic illustrations of how the USA tackled the problem with massive projects as- sisted by equally massive volunteer programmes, which received over $53 million of funding from NOAA in 2009- 2011. There clearly is a lot the UK and Europe can learn from their experience
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