NOAA
Fisheries Lab Helps Shellfish Growers Become Citizen Scientists
NOAA
Terrestrial farmers, hunters,
researchers, and even nature enthusiasts have long used trail cameras to
capture how wildlife interacts with their environment.
This process becomes
more complicated when trying to digitally document how aquatic species interact
with their environment due to factors like visibility, camera stand design, and
the presence of microalgae in the water column.
NOAA Fisheries staff from the
Milford Laboratory in Connecticut have created a Citizen
Science Guideto help growers capture high quality underwater footage
of aquaculture gear.
For many years shellfish farmers
have pointed to anecdotal evidence of fish species using oyster cages for their
benefit—but sometimes seeing is believing. Three years ago a multidisciplinary
team from the Milford Laboratory posed the question: Do oyster cages used
in shellfish aquaculture provide habitat similar to that of naturally-occurring
rock reef environments?
With some trial and error, a dozen
GoPro cameras, and many hours on the water and in the lab, the research group
has demonstrated that you can.
“The project has been incredibly
successful and has documented many interactions with local fish species, but
the team did a lot of troubleshooting and redesign to get to this point,” said
biological technician Gillian Phillips.
Phillips and her fellow team members
selected the small field-of-view cameras to record underwater video of oyster
off-bottom cages because of their relatively low cost and ease of use. However,
this was not a set it and forget it project.
“One of the first issues we
discovered was that the water in our video footage appeared green due to
naturally occurring algae found in Long Island Sound and natural attenuation of
light by the water itself,” said Phillips.
To correct this, the team turned to
an inexpensive, commercially-available magenta filter that balances the color.
The simple addition of the filter meant the team could skip post-processing
video, saving time and storage space on their computers.
“Having a team with divers,
fisheries experts, technicians and vessel captain and crew—all with field work
experience—has been invaluable,” said project co-lead Renee Mercaldo-Allen.
“Combined, the team has years of experience, and the new citizen guide for
underwater filming allows the team to share their knowledge and lessons
learned.”
When it comes to research and data
collection, it is often thought that only highly trained scientists can take
part. However, with the right guide and equipment, aquaculture farmers can
become citizen scientists and an incredible assist.
“We did not set out to create a
citizen science guide, we started out using the cameras for research,” said
Phillips. “But as word spread about our study, we have been getting a lot
of questions about how folks can use cameras in their own coastal waters.”
Why the growing interest from
others? By recording these interactions, a grower can present local regulators
and community leaders with footage of how their operations are not only
providing local sustainable seafood, but are also creating foraging habitat and
shelter for local species.
“Our footage has shown that
commercially- and recreationally-important species like black sea bass, scup
and tautog are using the shellfish aquaculture gear for their benefit,” added
Phillips. “As more growers, researchers, and extension agents use this guide
they will be building a repository of visual data for themselves and for
fisheries research.”
“We hope this guide will help
growers document the ecosystem benefits of their operations and provide a
visual representation showing that aquaculture and wild-capture species can
coexist together,” added Mercaldo-Allen.
By giving aquaculture farmers the
information needed to become involved in monitoring ecosystem interactions, the
new citizen guide can help stakeholders share data.