Shellfish & the Environment Research Symposium

On December 8, 2014, over 300 people attended a symposium on shellfish and the environment, held in Lacey, Washington. The symposium brought together scientists and other experts to share the latest research and information on shellfish and the environment. Speakers covered a range of topics, including aquaculture planning and permitting, shellfish ecosystems, and seagrasses. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a baseline of current knowledge on shellfish issues in Washington State and begin a discussion of those issues.

Where available, talk titles in the following symposium agenda link to presentations.

Agenda

8:30 Welcome, Rep. Larry Seaquist, 26th Legislative District, Julie Horowitz, Govenors Policy Office, Penny Dalton, Washington Sea Grant

Session A: Planning and Permitting

9:00 Current regulatory landscape for shellfish aquaculture in Washington — Laura Hoberecht, PhD, NOAA Fisheries, Western Regional Center

9:20 Shellfish caselaw update — Sonia Wolfman, Assistant Attorney General, Ecology Division

9:40 Shellfish aquaculture a regional perspective — Danna Moore, PhD, Washington State University

10:00 Demand for recreational shellfish harvest under environmental closures — Leif Anderson, PhD, NOAA, Northwest Fisheries Science Center

10:20 State planning to address the threat of ocean acidification — Angie Thomson, Enviroissues

Session B: Shellfish Ecosystems

11:00 Approaches for evaluating the effects of bivalve filter feeding on nutrient dynamics in Puget Sound, Washington — Christopher Konrad. PhD, US Geological Survey, Washington Water Science Center

11:20 Ecological carrying capacity for south Puget Sound — Dan Cheney, PhD, Pacific Shellfish Institute

11:40 Effects of shellfish aquaculture in Washington State — Jonathan Reum, PhD, Washington Sea Grant, University of Washington

1:30 Honoring the data:  A review of recent studies on ecological consequences of geoduck aquaculture in southern Puget Sound — P. Sean McDonlad, PhD, University of Washington

2:30 Effects of ocean acidification on shellfish — Emily Carrington, PhD, University of Washington

Session C: Seagrasses

3:10 What is eelgrass anyway? — Alan Trimble, PhD, University of Washington

3:30 Small scale effects of shellfish aquaculture on eelgrass — Jennifer Ruesink, PhD, University of Washington

3:50 Shellfish aquaculture – eelgrass interactions: extrapolating to the estuarine landscape scale — Brett Dumbauld, PhD, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

4:10 Eelgrass impacts local pH in shallow embayments of Washington State — Micah Horwith, PhD, Washington State Department of Natural Resources

Further Information