Shellfish restoration: assessing needs, opportunities and outcomes

1
Shellfish restoration assessing needs,
opportunities and outcomes
Thomas Landry1, Marc Ouellette1, Brian Leung2,
Andrea Locke1 and Mark Hanson1 1Gulf Fisheries
Center, Fisheries and Oceans Canada ,
2Department of Biology, McGill University
2
Atlantic Canada
3
Shellfish restoration (sGSL) historical

• Alleviate the pressures
• Disease outbreaks
• Malpeque disease
• QPX
• Haemic neoplasia
• MSX (Bras dOr Lakes, NS, 2002)
• Overexploitation
• Habitat alterations
• Inter-specific competition
• Invasive species

4
Shellfish Restoration (goals)
 To return or make as before, to re-establish
something, to bring back the return of degraded
ecosystem to a former state by calculated
interventions and/or by controlling
anthropogenic effects  
Ecology
Cultural
Biomass
Environment
Economic
Social
objectives (technique, protocol...)
measure of success (monitoring...)
 realistic expectation! 
5
Ecosystem Services (e.g. oyster reef)
other substrate stabilisation (erosion)
chemical buffer (pH)
6
Ecosystem Services
Everyone in the world depends on nature and
ecosystem services to provide the conditions for
a decent, healthy, and secure life (MEA 2005)
Ecosystem Functions (aquatic)

• Provisioning
• food
• (harvest and culture)
• water
• energy...

• Supporting
• nutrients cycling
• sediments cycling
• primary production
• ...

What do we value? (environmental,
socio-economical cultural)

• Regulating
• climate
• habitats
• ...

• Cultural
• aesthetic
• recreational
• ...

(adapted from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
2005)
7
Environmental state
Humans have made unprecedented changes to
ecosystems in recent decades to meet growing
demands for food, fresh water, fibre, and energy
(MEA 2005)
Drivers (human activities)
Pressures
Responses
State (aquatic ecosystems)
Impacts (ecosystem services)
8
State of the environment
State (changes) multiple pressures
cumulative environmental effects from various
types and intensity of human activities

• Coastal activities
• forestry
• agriculture
• peat moss
• mining
• energy production
• municipality waste
• land transportation
• marine transportation
• fishery
• fish plants
• aquaculture
• residential / leisure
• - marina
• - golf courses
• - coastal landscaping

9
Bivalves (ecological functions as filter feeders)
10
Steps in model development (from FAO, 2008
modified by them from Dambacher et al. 2007)
Ecosystem Models
will frequently be the best sources of
resource management information In their
absence, managers and decision-makers will have
no choice but to fall back on their own mental
models which may frequently be subjective,
untested and incomplete, a situation which
clearly needs to be avoided. Source FAO (2008)
Fisheries Management. 2. The ecosystem approach
to fisheries. 2.1. Best practices in ecosystem
modelling for informing an ecosystem approach to
fisheries. FAO Fisheries Technical Guidelines for
Responsible Fisheries. No. 4 Suppl. 2, Add.1.
11
Issues that could be addressed by ecosystem
modelling

• The effects of physical/environmental factors on
  resources, e.g., changes in nutrient loading
• Consequences of changes in ecosystem state, e.g.,
  regime changes to alternative stable states
• Does manipulation of bivalve biomass drive the
  ecosystem to a less productive/less desirable
  state?
• The importance of other anthropogenic effects,
  e.g., introduction of AIS
• The effects of habitat modification (restoration
  or loss)

12
Modelling options

• MANY different tools exist we are considering
• Ecopath
• Mass-balance model, based on carbon
• Understand energy flows in system
• with Ecosim
• Simulation testing of alternatives, builds on
  Ecopath model
• Use to examine implications of management
  decisions
• Models to examine the relationships between
  subsets of components of the ecosystem or
  validate the Ecopath
• e.g., empirical modelling based on applied
  limnology

13
Management question

• Question What is the effect on ecosystem
  services or valued ecosystem components (e.g.,
  water clarity, fish production, etc.)
• of changes in these inputs?
• Manipulation of primary producers (reflecting
  changes in nutrient inputs)
• Enhancement or harvest of bivalve biomass
  (production) and effects of bivalve species
  composition (e.g., mussels vs. oysters)
• Are there alternative stable states?
• What are the feedback loops?

14
Decision Process

• Managements 6 tenets (Elliott 2002)
• Our actions have to be
• environmentally sustainable
• technologically feasible
• economically viable
• socially desirable
• legally permissible and,
• administratively achievable.

15
Decision tools

• Bioeconomics
• Risk analysis
• Adaptive management
• Consistent with ecosystem management

16
Bioeconomics

• Environment is not independent of social
  drivers
• Economic models in the context of physical and
  biological constraints
• Systems thinking flow and cycles of energy and
  matter

17
Risk analysis

• Uncertainty always exists
• Decisions need to be made
• Make choices based on available data and risk
  preference

18
Adaptive management

• Use management as experiments
• Accept losses in some areas to reduce
  uncertainty
• Improve global system
• How do we make it fair and appealing given
  localized stakeholders?

19
Adaptive bioeconomic risk analysis
Complexity of Interactions
20
Conceptualizing Interactions Framework
Products
Industrial Activities
Inputs
By-Products

• Energy
• Capital
• Personnel
• Environmental Services

• Finished Product

• Environmental Impacts
• Pollution
• Climate Change
• Invasive Species
• Habitat Loss/degradation
• Overexploitation

21
Conceptualizing Interactions Framework
Industry 1
Outputs
Inputs
Outputs of Industry 1 Inputs to Industry 2
Outputs
Inputs
Industry 2
22
Adaptive bioeconomic risk analysisAnswering the
right questions

• How do we optimize the system?
• How can we best use the flows of matter?
• Can we engage/coordinate stakeholders and make
  the system equitable and sustainable?
• What are the best suite of options?
• What are the costs and benefits of each?
• Are there business opportunities?
• What are the risks, uncertainties and
  limitations?

23
Successful Shellfish RestorationExpectations ?
Resources Expectations Ecosystem
ApproachResources Stakeholders Engagement