Anthropogenic Interactions – Invertebrate Fisheries
& Aquaculture
Fisheries and aquaculture are important marine
activities that provide marine-derived food resources and jobs in coastal
communities. Responsible management of these industries requires understanding
how fishery and farm practices interact with coastal ecosystem processes.
In British Columbia Canada, I worked on shellfish
farms to examine how farm operations interact with larval recruitment. These clam farms are located on intertidal
mudflats, where I characterized small-scale flow environments and patterns of
larval recruitment around aquaculture structures, to test their influence on
larval settlement processes1.
Fisheries management decisions
can also influence the way that populations are connected and ultimately impact
wild stock genetics. I have used
individual-based models to simulate and study genetic connectivity over a range
of possible oyster fishery management and marine protected area strategies, the
results of which will develop a greater understanding of the effects of
management decisions.