TNC’s Bivalve Restoration: History & Direction

1. TNC’s Bivalve Restoration: History & Direction Dr. Boze Hancock The Nature Conservancy Global Marine Team

2. Acknowledgments NOAA Restoration Center * TNC-NOAA National Partnership for Community-based Restoration * American Recovery and Reinvestment Act The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Private donors including the Kabcenell Family Foundation, Quay Foundation, Shell, and the Turner Foundation 20,000+ volunteers and dozens of Partners

3. Presentation Outline • I. TNC and marine conservation • II. Why bivalves? • Global Perspective: Shellfish Reefs @ Risk • Building momentum nationally and internationally • How much is enough? • Future direction

4. Our mission compels us to be involved… The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

5. TNC’s Marine Conservation: International & Complex • TNC works in >30 countries • All coastal US States and most US Territories • Four strategic themes of marine work: • Marine Spatial Planning / Area Based Management • Ecosystem Based Adaptation • Sustainable fisheries • Critical Coastal Ecosystems: “Reefy Stuff” (including bivalves)

7. TNC-NOAA CRP Partnership; 109 projects, 4 National Partnerships, 2001-2010 Shellfish reefs & beds Anadromous fish Salt marsh Seagrasses Coral Mangrove Other Restoration Target ME WA CA VA AL LA FL USVI HI ARRA AK

8. Why bivalves? Critically important Ecosystem services Largely ignored

9. Regulating • Protection of beaches and coastlines from storm surges and waves. • Reduction of marsh shoreline erosion (break-waters) • Stabilization of submerged land by trapping sediments • Water quality maintenance (filters) • Provisioning • Subsistence and commercial fisheries • Aquaculture • Fertilizer and building materials (lime)  • Jewelry and other decoration (shells) Photo: Diana Garland, TNC Volunteer • Cultural • Tourism and recreation • Symbolic of coastal heritage  • Supportive • Cycling of nutrients • Fish production Nursery habitats Ecosystem Services Provided by Bivalves

10. TNC’s Shellfish Network A collection of shellfish restoration practitioners - grew from the TNC/NOAA Partnership Aims to share knowledge gained - ‘Practitioners Guide to Shellfish Restoration’ - TNC ‘Shellfish Restoration Clamor’ Identifies future direction for restoration - Met in 2005 and called for the ‘Global Assessment of Shellfish Reefs’

11. Coral Reefs at Risk A model for ‘Shellfish Reefs at Risk’ Low High Medium Bryant et al, 1998

12. Shellfish Reefs At Risk: A Global Assessment

13. Sum 20 ecoregions Adriatic Sea W. Mediterranean NE Brazil SE Brazil CelticSeas S. Eur. Atlantic Shelf NE New Zealand Amazonia North Sea Gulf St. Lawrence Ecoregion Central NZ Aegean Sea S. Caribbean Greater Antilles Carolinian Floridian Virginian Yellow Sea S.Gulf of Mexico N.Gulf of Mexico 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Average Annual Catch ’95-’04 (tons * 1000) Responsibility and Opportunity for Fishery Management & Conservation

14. Key Recommendations • Manage fisheries for rebuilding • Map current beds • Remove destructive fishing practices • Manage shellfish reefs in the Gulf of Mexico as- the last opportunity left for large-scale native habitat and fisheries • Oysters have many hallmarks for better management • (i) extensive private rights • (ii) populations that can be policed nearshore • (iii) clear links between the species and ecosystem structure

15. International Outcomes • South American shellfish network emerging- Similar goals to TNC’s U.S.-based network: share information & advance conservation and restoration • Elevate bivalve reefs as an international conservation priority through multi-lateral conventions:e.g., Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

16. ISSC - Shellfish Restoration Best Practices • ISSC = Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference • Dual mandates:- Protect public health by ensuring safe shellfish at market- Promote shellfish restoration • Sometimes viewed as conflicting mandatesparticularly when restoration is needed in ‘closed’ waters • Best practices for restoration projects in closed waters would validate both mandates

18. ISSC - Shellfish Restoration Best Practices • Restoration projects in closed waters in nearly all states • States have very different perspectives about the ‘risk’ associated with restoration in closed waters around US (or of having dense populations of bivalves, generally, in such areas) • Both human health and environmental health needs are critically important to society • Imperative to work together to find a solution • ISSC initiative timely and a tremendous opportunity to improve overall management

19. Building momentum - Scales of projects Larger Medium Small But, mostly, still working around the margins…

20. ARRA projects

24. Alabama 100/1000 100 miles of oyster reef, 1000 acres seagrass/saltmarsh

25. How much reef is ‘enough’? Joe Fudge, Daily Press

26. Examples of existing goals Chesapeake Bay Program = 10% historic abundance by 2010 (aspirational, not the end-point) US Army Corps of Engineers, for individual Chesapeake tributaries = 40% historic extent Executive Order, Chesapeake = 20 tributaries “restored” by 2025 Great Bay, New Hampshire – NEP, 20 acres by 2010

27. Development of national-scale oyster reef restoration goals SCALING RESOTRATION FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Water filtration Fisheries production (non-oyster ) Denitrification Coastal protection (especially relevant for Gulf of Mexico) • PROJECT TEAM • Rob Brumbaugh (GMT - FL Keys Office) • Mark Spalding (GMT - Cambridge Office, UK) • Philine zu Ermgassen (Cambridge, UK) • Boze Hancock (GMT - URI Bay Campus) • Mike Beck (GMT - UC Santa Cruz) • Zach Ferdaňa, Ben Gilmer (TNC Seattle) • With additional support from: • External Science Advisory Team • TNC field program staff • Various conservation partners

28. Ecosystem service: Water Filtration 10,000 Limited Water Quality Benefits 1,000 Clearance Time (days) 100 Clearance required for regulation 10 Shellfish Regulate Water Quality 1 10 100 1 1,000 10,000 Residence Time (days) Adapted from: R. Dame, 1996. Ecology of Marine Bivalves: An Ecosystem Approach

29. Ecosystem service: fish production Cumulative value ($ * 10 m-2) Functional life time of oyster reef (yr) Peterson et al. 2003 reviewed quantitative studies of nekton abundance. Grabowski and Peterson (2007) extended this to include economic valuation. Might we use this to derive fish enhancement goals?

30. Ecosystem service: denitrification Kellogg et al. 2009. Adapted from: Newell RIE, Fisher TR, Holyoke RR, Cornwell JC (2005) Influence of eastern oysters on N and P regeneration in Chesapeake Bay, USA. In: Dame R, Olenin S (eds) The Comparative Roles of Suspension Feeders in Ecosystems.

31. Ecosystem service: shoreline protection Photo: Chesapeake Bay Foundation

32. Anticipated Outcomes • Amplification of global reef assessment • Quantitative baseline for measuring future changes • New, larger context for restoration (i.e., new management objectives beyond shellfish harvest) • New constituents for oyster reefs (i.e., water quality managers, wetland managers)

33. Future directions for TNC • Explore markets for ecosystem services (e.g., nitrogen trading) • Addressing key research questions through restoration (when & where are shorelines best protected by an oyster reef vs. traditional engineered structure) • Assist partners with development and implementation of larger scale restoration projects • Expand collaborations internationally for conservation and restoration of bivalve reefs

34. “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.” - Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Boze Hancock TNC Global Marine Team bhancock@tnc.org 305-745-8402 (ext. 109)

35. Report released at IMCC 2009 BioScience Jan 2011