New insights into the habitat benefits of seaweed and shellfish farms in temperate ecosystems are emerging from a unique study initiated by The Nature Conservancy on opposite sides of the globe: New Zealand and the Gulf of Maine.
Wild fish are widely known to make use of shellfish and seaweed farms, often occurring in much greater numbers inside farms compared to adjacent natural habitats. While fish larvae are thought to settle and recruit to shellfish and seaweed farms, there is little published evidence to support this assumption, especially in temperature ecosystems. Targeting this gap in understanding, the University of Auckland and University of New England, with support from The Nature Conservancy, have been assessing the potential role of coastal aquaculture in providing habitat.
Parallel sampling methods have been adopted in the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand and the Gulf of Maine in the United States to assess the effect of farm activity and local environmental conditions on the abundance and diversity of invertebrate and fish species. GoPro cameras and invertebrate collectors have been deployed, with unique results emerging from the research…
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