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Researchers are developing a support tool for decision makers that will allow them to better understand the collective effects of marine activity on an ecosystem.

While coastal aquaculture has great potential for the production of food and the generation of wealth, its success lies in the intricate interactions of people, resources and ecosystems.

Aquaculture is vulnerable to poor water quality and pollution from industrial, domestic and agricultural wastes. In turn, some early aquaculture successes have been tarnished by environmental and resource use issues, social problems, fish diseases, and marketing setbacks.

It comes as no surprise, then, that an integrated approach is required to incorporate all of these issues into decision making to promote sustainable development in coastal zone aquaculture.

To help achieve this, a team of natural and social scientists from across the country is measuring the effects of marine activities on an ecosystem. AquaNet Principal Investigator Dr. Dan Lane and Co-Investigator Wojtek Michalowski, both from the School of Management at the University of Ottawa, are working with Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) scientists at the St. Andrews Biological Station in New Brunswick to develop a model that will act as a decision-support tool for aquaculture-related marine site evaluation and problem solving.

Using a computer-aided framework that can display the resources of marine areas on maps, the decision-support tool is designed for establishing marine recreational areas, locating new fish farms, resource habitat and fishing locations and assessing the coexistence of commercial and community uses of marine sites.

Part of the research deals with the strategic aspects of fish farming throughout Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy. DFO researchers Drs. Rob Stephenson and Fred Page supplied marine resources information for the model such as the level of resources and their habitat, and the number, location and productivity of fish farms.

These data were translated into a geographical model by Drs. Lane and Michalowski to evaluate the ecosystem value of selected marine sites. The model shows how fish farms interact with other ecosystem components, indicates what the ecosystem might be like if marine activities (e.g., recreation, fishing or fish farms) were relocated, and evaluates the overall impact on the ecosystem.

The model can be used to evaluate the potential impacts of new fish farming operations along coastal regions by identifying marine sites that would be more economically profitable and less environmentally sensitive.

"You must first find out where the resources are and what potential ecosystem impacts alternative sites may have, and then match up the largest ecosystem and economic benefits with the lowest ecosystem and economic costs to uncover candidates for best sites," Dr. Lane explains.

The model uses data from multiple sources to identify the important ecosystem characteristics of local marine resources, marine habitat, natural and man-made effluents, and human commercial and recreational activities including aquaculture sites.

Of prime importance, it also incorporates the perspectives of all who participate in setting coastal marine policy, including inhabitants of the coastal communities, native peoples, fishing and aquaculture industries, provincial managers and federal scientists, as well as non-governmental environmental organizations.

"Fish farms bring employment and positive economic value to the industry and community, but for some constituents of the coastal zone they may also interfere with a non-interventionist viewpoint," Dr. Lane says.

Including all views in the decision-support model helps decision-makers in their negotiations. It allows them to more easily consider compromise positions, such as changing the location of a proposed farm site to avoid affecting a traditional recreation area.

According to Dr. Lane, this approach – using input from an interdisciplinary team of researchers to create a model that evaluates the cumulative effects of marine activity on an ecosystem – is novel. While the model provides a decision-support framework, the challenge continues to be obtaining and analyzing large amounts of data to better understand coastal marine systems.

"There are so many factors to take into account that we can't seek to optimize the solution entirely," says Dr. Lane. "Rather, we attempt to come up with new ideas and suggestions using the model that are based on the decision makers' own objectives and then let the decision makers choose the opportunities that fit them best."

This way of negotiated problem solving also ensures that each party takes what it needs from the model. As Dr. Lane explains, decisions depend on who is making them. Federal and provincial governments, along with commercial, environmental and community groups all have different perspectives. The best solutions lie in embracing all the different viewpoints and developing the most acceptable opportunities.

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