EAPSI: Ecosystem-Friendly Engineering can Enhance Fisheries Production in Japan

Smith Carter S, Morehead City NC

Investigators

Abstract

Two of the most pressing environmental management concerns on a global scale are maintaining fishery stocks and preventing shoreline damage and erosion in the face of sea level rise and increased storminess. Typically, these two goals are at odds, as traditional methods of erosion protection (bulkheads, revetments, seawalls) have been shown to have negative effects on habitats and the fish and invertebrate populations living in them. This project will provide the first assessment of the effects of shoreline stabilization structures on the growth of a commercially important shrimp species and it will determine which existing structural designs have the highest amount of edible invertebrates and algae growing on them. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Professor Masahiro Nakaoka, a renowned coastal ecology, at the University of Hokkaido, Japan, and it will provide a basis for determining the preferred construction parameters for shoreline stabilization structures. Nowhere are the issues of shoreline hardening and fishery stock declines more of a concern than in Japan, where the per capita consumption of fish is nearly 5 times the global average and where more than 40% of the shoreline has been artificially ?hardened?. In recognition of this growing concern, environmental engineers have begun to develop and incorporate more ecosystem-friendly design elements into coastal infrastructure; however, scientists need a more comprehensive understanding of the cumulative effects of shoreline hardening and the value of different types of construction (both ecologically and structurally). For this project, researchers will: 1) survey modified shoreline structures to determine which existing construction parameters maximize recruitment of target fishery species; and, 2) conduct a manipulative field experiment to determine if shoreline hardening reduces penaeid shrimp growth in different habitat contexts. By exploring how effective different types of construction are at maintaining and potentially enhancing fisheries, this project will bridge the gap between the priorities of coastal protection and fish habitat enhancement. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.