Aquaculture

Aquaculture has been used for millennia to generate food for people from aquatic organisms. The emerging field of conservation aquaculture focuses on the potential for incorporating aquaculture techniques into restoration.

Conservation aquaculture is defined as human cultivation of an aquatic organism for the planned management and protection of a natural resource. In places where Olympia oyster population sizes are low, and are limited by successful reproduction, conservation aquaculture may hold promise.

Video of an Oly larvae. Video: Dan Gossard

*Photo: large tanks of algae for feeding Olys at the Kenneth Chew Center for Shellfish Research and Restoration*

A NOOC team evaluated all major estuaries within the range of the Olympia oysters, and identified those where use or expansion of conservation aquaculture was a priority. The findings are summarized in Ridlon et al. 2021.

*Image: priority sites for using or expanding conservation aquaculture for Olys*

The Puget Sound Restoration Fund has long pioneered conservation aquaculture for Olympia oysters, using it to increase populations in bays with limited recruitment. But conservation aquaculture was rarely used elsewhere in the range of the species.

NOOC members in California developed a scientific framework for determining when conservation aquaculture is appropriate, and tested its application at Elkhorn Slough. This is summarized in Wasson et al. 2020.

*Image: flowchart for determining whether conservation aquaculture is appropriate tool for a coastal foundation species*

Another California study examined outplant sizes, tidal elevations, and substrates using conservation aquaculture (Harris et al. 2023).

*Photo: hatchery-raised Olys on a gaper clam shell just before outplanting to the estuary at a community restoration event at Elkhorn Slough*

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