Saving Seafood

Ambitious Vision for North Carolina’s Oysters Outlined in New 5-Year Plan

April 29, 2021 — Restoring oysters can boost water quality and offer shoreline protection from storms, and this week the North Carolina Coastal Federation released its five-year action plan, outlining steps to keep this valuable shellfish thriving.

Leda Cunningham, officer for Conserving Marine Life in the U.S. at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said North Carolina’s oysters are in good shape, but face threats from storms, poor water quality and the impacts of climate change.

She believes the new Oyster Blueprint offers an example for other coastal states of how to restore and protect oyster populations.

“In those 15 or so years, it’s led to measurable progress in the state, and that is really a result of the inclusive systematic approach that Coastal Fed has taken with its partners to identify challenges and opportunities with this special resource,” Cunningham stated.

Guided by the Blueprint over the years, North Carolina has restored nearly 450 acres of oyster habitat, grown shellfish aquaculture from a $250,000 to $5 million industry, increased the number of shellfish farms in the state tenfold, and developed a nationally recognized shell recycling program.

Erin Fleckenstein, coastal scientist for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said the plan includes new management strategies to help safeguard North Carolina’s waters, particularly in the Newport River and Stump Sound.

Read the full story at the Public News Service

Efforts On to Rebuild North Carolina’s Oyster Population

April 27, 2021 — North Carolina’s estuaries were teeming with oysters 150 years ago. In the time since, a combination of factors has caused oyster populations to decline.

Development, urbanization, point and nonpoint source pollution, intensive farming, harvest pressure, and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as freezing temperatures, hurricanes, heavy rains and prolonged winds have all contributed to the loss, said state marine ecologist Jason Peters.

As supervisor of North Carolina’s cultch planting program, Peters has been heading up an effort by the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries to rebuild the oyster population.

“Cultch planting is an oyster restoration technique employed by many states along the East and Gulf coasts to return hard bottom habitat to our estuaries. This hard-bottom habitat, usually in the form of oyster shell of fossilized limestone marl, is placed in areas with suitable conditions for recruitment, growth and survival of oysters,” said Peters, who also supervises the state’s artificial reefs and oyster sanctuaries program. “The objective of this program is to mitigate habitat loss from harvest or natural events by establishing new, successful oyster reefs.”

Erin Fleckenstein is coastal scientist with the Wanchese office of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review. She explained that cultch planting activities are part of a comprehensive strategy to build back oyster resources and support a wild harvest fishery in the state.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online