SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE and FISHERIES

Strategic Goal 6: Enhance the development of viable and sustainable aquaculture and fisheries in South Carolina and the region.

The commercial fishing industry (fish, oysters, clams, shrimp and crabs) remains an important component of local, coastal economies and ways of life. More than 2,000 commercial fishermen harvest an average (since 1993) 14.7 million pounds of seafood worth about $33 million (ex-vessel price) annually.

Recreational fishing and boating are making an ever larger contribution to the state’s economy. According to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), the annual impact of marine recreational fishing in South Carolina is approximately $300 million. Since 1994, boat registrations grew in South Carolina by almost 15 percent, with registrations in the eight coastal counties accounting for 30 percent of the state total. Each year, nearly 111,000 residents and non-residents acquire saltwater recreational fishing licenses. Sixty percent of those who purchase licenses are coastal residents, 20 percent are non-coastal residents and 20 percent are non-residents. In addition, more than 10,000 recreational shrimp baiting licenses are sold in the state each year.

Aquaculture represents a relatively new commercial enterprise in South Carolina, but stable operations in marine shrimp, crawfish and hard clam culture have already been established. In the last decade, aquaculture farm-gate value has more than doubled. Most recently the aquaculture industry in South Carolina has been threatened by disease, competition from overseas imports, concerns with regulations, and questions about its potential for adverse environmental impacts.

Recreational fishing, always a favorite pastime among local residents, has grown to play an increasing role in the state’s tourism economy. While the role of the recreational fishery in the tourism economy has grown, the commercial industry struggles with increasing regulation, competition from imports, low domestic prices, rising operational costs, and changing land use patterns that make docking space, fuel, and ice increasingly difficult to find and afford.

The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, through its research/extension/outreach capabilities seeks to develop solutions that address the socio-economic, regulatory, research, and technology transfer issues facing South Carolina’s commercial and recreational fisheries and aquaculture industries, in support of healthy and sustainable fisheries and fishing communities.

The objectives for this program area are to:

1. Enhance the development of viable and sustainable aquaculture industries in South Carolina.

2. Assist the S.C. commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture industries as they cope with rapidly changing economic and regulatory environments.

3. Promote the safe handling, processing, transportation, sale and storage of seafood by harvesters, processors, truckers, wholesale and retail vendors, and consumers.

FY06-08 Priorities

Marine Aquaculture

The Consortium is seeking Concept Letters for the following areas:

• Identification and remediation of critical diseases in bivalve shellfish (clams and oysters) aquaculture operations in South Carolina.

• Examination of techniques for the culture of oysters in South Carolina. Efforts should focus on viable culture and grow-out techniques that can meet the state’s environmental, regulatory, and public health objectives, with particular attention on approaches that allow culture in state waters and private ponds and address the presence and relative risk of bacteria and diseases in state waters.

• Research is required to examine the potential for and feasibility of utilizing ponds and the Partitioned Aquaculture System for seed production and the grow-out of shellfish (e.g., single oyster culture) in South Carolina. This work should include research on stocking densities, growth rates, algae production, engineering, and bacterial loading.

• Research opportunities and techniques (including closed systems) for the inland culture of marine and freshwater shrimp and intensive shrimp production in greenhouse systems.

Commercial and Recreational Fisheries

The Consortium is seeking Concept Letters for the following areas:

• The reauthorization of the Magnuson Act will likely contain language indicating the fisheries must be managed based on ecosystems. This “ecosystem-based” management approach has yet to be defined and the mechanisms for how it is to be applied have yet to be identified. Research is needed to develop models for “ecosystem-based” fisheries management, especially for the snapper-grouper complex and red drum fisheries. Proposals are sought that would:

• Identify optimum snapper-grouper habitat, and environmental and habitat conditions that limit snapper-grouper production

• Determine the relationship between juvenile snapper-grouper and estuarine habitat

• Quantify the relationships between snapper-grouper production and habitat

• Social science and economic research is needed to define the community impacts of fisheries regulations. Defining what constitutes a historical (= traditional) fishing community, and the cumulative impacts of regulations on a community needs to be examined.

• Investigations of new and innovative gear and technology to increase shrimp trawl efficiency (e.g., new design for “doors”) is needed, as are alternative methods for commercially harvesting marine shrimp (such as butterfly nets, channel nets, traps).

• Last summer (2004) large numbers of flounder were forced to the beaches along the Grand Strand, apparently as a result of low dissolved oxygen in the nearshore coastal ocean waters. Speculation is that flounder are utilizing the nearshore live bottom habitat. Questions that require additional research include: Is the current thinking that flounder spawn well offshore (near the Gulf Stream) valid? Are the flounder populations off Myrtle Beach important spawners? What’s the size/age structure of these fish? Are larvae being produced and moving down the beach in longshore current?

Fisheries Restoration and Enhancement

• Research is needed to examine the long-term potential and success of stock enhancement programs to augment natural finfisheries production. The Consortium is currently supporting a red drum enhancement project, but additional questions need to be addressed, including:

• The role of red drum in the overall food web

• Further examination of the ecological effects of stock enhancement on natural populations

• Natural carrying capacity of estuaries for juvenile red drum

• Recruitment of young red drum to the spawning stock

• South Carolina’s population of natural oysters, while relatively healthy, is subjected to both natural and anthropogenic influences that can affect its health. Science-based information is desired by the state Marine Resources Division on alternative husbandry techniques for wild oysters. Questions that require attention include: Can we improve the effectiveness of old shell as cultch? Are there alternative substrates? What makes cultch work in one spot and not another?