Abstract
Conservation aquaculture is becoming an important tool to support the recovery of declining marine species and meet human needs. However, this tool comes with risks as well as rewards, which must be assessed to guide aquaculture activities and recovery efforts. Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) provide key ecosystem functions and services along the west coast of North America, but populations have declined to the point of local extinction in some estuaries. Here, we present a species-level, range-wide approach to strategically planning the use of aquaculture to promote recovery of Olympia oysters. We identified 12 benefits of culturing Olympia oysters, including identifying climate-resilient phenotypes that add diversity to growers' portfolios. We also identified 11 key risks, including potential negative ecological and genetic consequences associated with the transfer of hatchery-raised oysters into wild populations. Informed by these trade-offs, we identified ten priority estuaries where aquaculture is most likely to benefit Olympia oyster recovery. The two highest scoring estuaries have isolated populations with extreme recruitment limitation-issues that can be addressed via aquaculture if hatchery capacity is expanded in priority areas. By integrating social criteria, we evaluated which project types would likely meet the goals of local stakeholders in each estuary. Community restoration was most broadly suited to the priority areas, with limited commercial aquaculture and no current community harvest of the species, although this is a future stakeholder goal. The framework we developed to evaluate aquaculture as a tool to support species recovery is transferable to other systems and species globally; we provide a guide to prioritizing local knowledge and developing recommendations for implementation by using transparent criteria. Our collaborative process engaging diverse stakeholders including managers, scientists, Indigenous Tribal representatives, and shellfish growers can be used elsewhere to seek win-win opportunities to expand conservation aquaculture where benefits are maximized for both people and imperiled species.
Highlights
Marine biodiversity and the ecosystem services marine species provide are in decline globally, but it is not too late for these changes to be reversed [1]
The stakeholder team identified 32 different potential rewards and 29 potential risks associated with conservation aquaculture of Olympia oysters
Each benefit or risk was assigned to one of the categories we identified based on the primary beneficiary: Olympia oyster populations, the coastal ecosystem, conservation practitioners, Tribes / First Nations, local community members, and commercial growers
Summary
Marine biodiversity and the ecosystem services marine species provide are in decline globally, but it is not too late for these changes to be reversed [1]. Marine foundation species (e.g. kelp, mangroves, corals, oysters) are critical to the structure and resilience of coastal ecosystems, providing key ecosystem services to human communities around the world [2, 3]. Many marine foundation species have suffered severe population declines due to human activities including overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change Oysters act as foundation species by creating habitat for other estuarine species and providing key ecosystem services to human communities around the world [6,7,8]. Ever-rising global demand for protein, among other factors, is driving the rapid expansion of shellfish aquaculture [13,14,15], including oyster farming, while the restoration of native oyster species and wild oyster beds has become a priority for maintaining the health and ecosystem function of estuaries [16, 17]
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