By ecoRI News staff
The Nature Conservancy
(TNC) and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) are
building nine small-scale, experimental reefs in Quonochontaug Pond.
As part of a multiyear
project, scientists seek to find out whether building oyster reefs in shallow
coastal areas can improve the growth and survival of early life stages of
recreationally important fish such as black sea bass, tautog, striped bass,
scup, summer flounder and winter flounder.
The underwater reefs are
being built with steam-shucked surf clam shells, transported by barge from the
Quonochontaug Fishing Area boat ramp to restoration sites at the far eastern
and western ends of the pond.
The sites were selected
as suitable for oysters and close to high-quality, underutilized fish habitat.
The new reefs will be covered with a layer of oyster shells and seeded with
live oysters.
State regulations
prohibit oyster harvesting in Quonochontaug
Pond, protecting the reefs
and allowing for oyster propagation and growth.
“Complex structures like oyster reefs are critically important for juvenile fish, providing excellent feeding areas and protecting them from open-water predators,” said Scott Comings, associate state director for TNC in Rhode Island.
“The hope with this
project is that if we put shells back in the water seeded with juvenile
oysters, marine life will quickly colonize the reefs and re-establish the
habitat we’ve lost over time.”
In October 2015, TNC and
DEM built eight experimental reefs in Ninigret Pond. Scientists have since been
monitoring the health of the Ninigret reefs, tracking natural recruitment of
wild oysters, and recording the species of crabs, shrimp and fish that are
attracted to them.
The Quonochontaug Pond
reefs will be added to the monitoring program this summer, with additional
study to measure the comparative growth rates of different strains of seeded
oysters.
The project will
evaluate whether oysters native to Green Hill Pond or the Narrow River estuary
perform better than a hatchery strain commonly used in oyster restoration
projects in coastal ponds.
“Research in the Gulf of
Mexico and Mid-Atlantic region has shown that constructing oyster reefs can
increase fish and invertebrate biomass, as well as the growth and survival of
recreationally important fish species,” said Eric Schneider, principal marine
biologist for DEM Marine Fisheries.
“Considering the former
research and that current oyster populations in Rhode Island are less than 10
percent of those from the mid-1900s, we believe that enhancing this
ecologically important habitat will benefit local fish communities and anglers.
Rhode Island’s coastal waters offer many fantastic opportunities for anglers to
enjoy the diversity and abundance of our local catch.”
The practice of building
reefs to enhance fish habitat with recycled shell has only recently been
introduced in southern New England.
The Ninigret and
Quonochontaug reef projects will provide valuable information that will help
future reef construction projects and contribute to a broader finfish
restoration strategy for Rhode Island, according to state officials.
This work is being
conducted in collaboration with Jon Grabowski and Randall Hughes of
Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center.
They are assisting with
design of the reefs, establishment of the monitoring protocol, and data
analysis.
In addition to enhancing
the fish habitat in the coastal ponds, these reefs provide ecosystem services,
such as improved water quality and clarity via nutrient uptake and
sequestration, which complement aspects of the Rhode Island Shellfish Management Plan and the Rhode Island Shellfish Initiative.
TNC and DEM pooled their
resources to fund this project, with support from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service’s Sport Fish Restoration Program and individual donors.
