Using Shellfish Aquaculture for Water Quality Improvement Initiatives in Florida

Online Resource for Shellfish Aquaculture + Water Quality Restoration Plans

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How Can Shellfish Aquaculture Be Used In Water Quality Restoration Plans?

Our work aims to quantify the capacity of Florida’s shellfish aquaculture to remove nitrogen. We will determine how counties and state governments can incorporate the ecosystem benefits of shellfish aquaculture into water quality restoration policy frameworks such as water quality trading, payments for ecosystem services, and compensatory mitigation. The team will examine opportunities and obstacles to expanding the aquaculture industry's reach beyond its traditional role in food production and will advance the payment for ecosystem services from shellfish for Florida.

Shellfish are efficient filter feeders, and aid in improving water quality by removing excess nitrogen, bacteria, and algae from water. A single adult oyster can filter more than 50 gallons of water a day! By quantifying the capacity of Florida’s shellfish aquaculture to remove nitrogen, we can determine how counties and state governments can incorporate the ecosystem benefits of shellfish aquaculture into water quality restoration policy frameworks. This includes water quality trading, payments for ecosystem services, and compensatory mitigation. Our team is examining opportunities and obstacles to expanding the aquaculture industry's reach beyond its traditional role in food production and will advance the payment for ecosystem services from shellfish for Florida.

Clams

Hard clams are bivalve mollusks: animals that feed by filtering suspended particles out of the water column. Particulate material in shallow coastal waters is abundant, and the filtering capacity of bivalves often promotes good water quality. Filter feeding is accomplished by capturing food particles that enter the bivalve shell through water currents or active pumping by the animal. Particles are trapped by gill filaments that contain small hair-like protrusions called “cilia”. The cilia then move the food to the mouth to be digested by the animal.

http://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/clams_eat/home.php

Oysters

Oysters are shellfish bivalves that eat phytoplankton or small bits of algae suspended in the water. Like clams, they are filter feeders, which means that they obtain their food by filtering water in and over their gills. If a particle is too small it may pass through the filter, but if it is too big it will be rejected as psuedofeces. Adult oysters can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day!

https://www.inahalfshell.com

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A Holistic Assessment of Using Shellfish Aquaculture for Water Quality Improvement Initiatives in Florida

Based on the success of programs in New England and Chesapeake Bay, there is growing interest in incorporating shellfish aquaculture into nutrient trading credit programs in Florida. Yet, differences in environmental condition, cultivation techniques, state policy and economic impact, make it challenging to directly transfer measurements and programs to Florida. Proposed work aims to quantify the capacity of Florida’s shellfish aquaculture to remove nitrogen. We will determine how counties and state governments can incorporate the ecosystem benefits of shellfish aquaculture into water quality restoration policy frameworks such as water quality trading, payments for ecosystem services, and compensatory mitigation. The team will examine opportunities and obstacles to expanding the aquaculture industry's reach beyond its traditional role in food production and will advance the payment for ecosystem services from shellfish for Florida. The economic viability and potential for such a program will be assessed through surveys to evaluate current costs of nitrogen abatement and future willingness to purchase abatement credits from shellfish producers, as well as surveys of shellfish producers about their desire to sell abatement credits or participate in water quality restoration initiatives. If scientifically, legally, and economically feasible, this alternate source of revenue for farmed shellfish will contribute to ecosystem restoration, industry stability, and workforce development.

This work is supported by the Nature Conservancy’s Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) program.