Matt Winter
The Post and Courier
The Coastal Conservation Association used the Lowcountry Oyster Festival as a kickoff for its new statewide oyster shell recycling program. After being redeposited in coastal waterways, the shells will form the foundation for new oyster reefs.
Conservation group cranks up adopt-a-creek, oyster recycling
A local conservation group is taking a cue from the popular Adopt-A-Highway program and applying the same principles of stewardship to Lowcountry waterways.
The Coastal Conservation Association’s new “Adopt-A-Creek” program will enlist members and volunteers to clean up and serve as advocates for coastal creeks and tributaries deemed “at-risk” by the association and state officials.
Since many CCA members are boat owners familiar with local waterways, they can reach areas where traditional cleanup efforts can’t, according to CCA South Carolina Executive Director Scott Whitaker.
The effort is one of many in CCA SC’s “Topwater Action Campaign,” a new initiative called focusing on marine habitat and water quality issues.
“Topwater Action,” a collaborative effort by CCA and the state Marine Resources Division, also features a new statewide oyster recycling program and habitat restoration project, along with an educational effort designed to increase the public’s awareness of environmental issues affecting marine fisheries.
The group plans to identify drop-off sites for used oyster shells in Greenville-Spartanburg, Columbia, Florence and other parts the state. These used shells will be placed back into the marine ecosystem, where they will form the structure needed to establish new oyster reefs.
Since many traditional oyster replanting efforts focus on areas close to shore access points, CCA’s boat-based effort will allow shell to be replanted in new areas deep in the marshes.
CCA kick-started this new oyster recycling effort early this year at the Lowcountry Oyster Festival in Mount Pleasant. The festival is billed as the region’s biggest oyster roast, where an estimated 65,000 pounds of oysters can be eaten in one day.
Wearing orange “Oyster Recovery Team” T-shirts, CCA members and volunteers from every corner of the Palmetto state mingled in the huge crowds as they moved mounds of used shells into a large trailer. All told, they recycled about 1,100 bushels from this one event.
Targeting big fish may tilt evolution in favor of small fry
The Associated Press
Rules that allow only the catching of larger fish may encourage their replacement with slower growing, more timid varieties.
That, at least, is the concern of researchers who studied test populations in two artificial lakes and reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Peter A. Biro of the department of environmental science at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, explained that it’s the fast-growing, more aggressive fish that tend to get caught, removing them from the breeding pool.
That leaves reproduction up to slower-growing fish who are more timid, he explained.
“This will cause evolution to slower growth rates and slow the rate of recovery for fished populations, and could explain why fisheries tend not to rebound in the manner we expect after we reduce harvest or close a fishery,” he said.
“What surprised me was how fast it occurred,” Biro said. He said the largest catch occurred on the first day of fishing.
Biro and his colleague, John R. Post, stocked two lakes in western Canada with different types of rainbow trout. One type was known to be aggressive in seeking food and to grow rapidly, while the other grew more slowly and tended to take fewer risks in foraging. They set gillnets in the ponds over five days, moving them each day, and caught 50 percent of the stocked fast-growing fish but just 30 percent of the more cautious ones.
“Fish that are highly active and bold tend to bump into these nets more often and are less likely to avoid them,” he explained. And increased activity is necessary to get enough food for rapid growth.
John Waldman, an aquatic biologist at Queens College in New York, called the report important.
“Harvest of fishes is probably the most profound impact mankind is having on the sea, yet we rarely succeed in even the basics of achieving long-term sustainability of important commercial species,” said Waldman, who was not part of the research team.
The report shows that “differences in ‘boldness,’ which are positively correlated with grow rate, render bold individuals more vulnerable to harvest, thereby adding an important and, till now, unconsidered direct effect to the known indirect effect” of fishing, Waldman said.
“The implication for managers is that the continued reproduction of a meaningful portion of fast growing individuals is likely even more important than previously recognized,” he said.
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