Restoring Shellfish to Improve Our Coasts, Support Green Jobs, and Boost the Economy

ICSR 2010 Conference

Summer Morlock – NOAA Restoration Center

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NOAA Restoration Center Shellfish Projects

NOAA Community-based Restoration Program

with many partners (TNC, FAF, NFWF, GMF, etc.)

• >$10 million in federal funding• >215 projects

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

• Coastal resources = America’s economic engines (fishing, recreation, tourism, infrastructure protection…)

• Commercial and recreational fishing – employs 2M people and contributes $185B to the nation’s economy

• $167M for coastal restoration and green jobs• More than $3B in requests from over 800 applications• Funded 50 shovel ready projects• Habitats: wetlands, rivers, coral reefs, and shellfish

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• ARRA funding for shellfish: ~$18.5 million• Restoring: ~100 ac oyster; 35 ac marsh;100 ac seagrass (100K scallops)

• Protecting: >330 marsh and seagrass acres• Supporting: >400,000 labor hour (>200 FTEs)

• Grantees: TNC (3), Martin County FL, NCCF, City of Charleston

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Why Shellfish Restoration

• Provides nursery and rearing habitat for important commercial and recreational fish• Over 170 species of fish have been documented at oyster

reefs in Northern GOM (Kilgen and Dugas 1989)

• ARRA: sea trout, drum, flounder, snapper, grouper, crab, sheepshead, striped bass, shrimp, sea bass, croaker, spot, bluefish, menhaden, shark, perch, etc.

• Provides additional spat source for shellfish harvest areas• Enhances water quality and nutrient cycling• Acts as “living shorelines” or “green infrastructure” by

protecting coastlines from waves and storm surge

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Why Shellfish Restoration

• Employs a wide variety of jobs: barge and tug crews, trucker drivers and loaders, heavy equipment operators, fishermen, divers, mechanics, quarry miners, welders, engineers, biologists, etc.

• Areas of high unemployment• Fishing communities hit by hurricanes Katrina, Ivan, and

Rita

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Learning from the Past and Going to Scale

• Significantly increases NOAA RC’s investment in shellfish projects (~$10M plus $18.5M)

• VA – 10 fold increase in restoration targets in 2010• NC – Achieving six years of restoration in 18 months• AL and LA – Largest living shoreline projects

(AL – from 25-75m to 750-1500m).

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Learning from the Present and Monitoring

• Shellfish metrics (density, growth, etc.)• Presence and use by target species• Quantification of stabilization and enhancement of

adjacent habitats and shoreline• Socio-economics

• Tracking hours worked, and modeling economic impact through IMPLAN

• Additional studies: recreational angling use; perceptions of local economic and ecologic benefits of the recovery funding

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Getting the Word Out

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Thanks to all of our grantees and their partners for restoring our coasts and coastal communities!

City of Charleston