Gulf of Mexico Research & Restoration News

The Eastern oyster industry in the United States produces 23 million pounds of oysters annually valued at $82.5 M.  The Gulf of Mexico typically accounts for 89% of harvest by volume, but represents only 73% of the total dollar value.  Experts at the Auburn University Shellfish Lab in Mobile County, Alabama are working to change that.

Despite the dramatic growth of oyster farming across the US, in the Gulf of Mexico region, oysters are only farmed extensively on bottom leases with the vast majority of production concentrated in Louisiana. Subject to environmental variability, the supply and quality of extensively farmed oysters varies widely. In contrast, oyster farmers using intensive, off-bottom methods focus on producing a steady supply of consistently premium oysters for the lucrative half shell niche market.

Off-bottom oyster farming, where watermen raise hatchery-reared oyster ‘seed’ in various containers, is an opportunity for a viable near-shore domestic aquaculture industry that can provide a large economic boon to the coastal communities along the Northern Gulf, to the producers as well as to the local  supporting industries, can improve the environment, and can preserve working waterfronts. While substantial industries (over $100 million/year respectively) have been established on the US East and West coasts, a number of hurdles kept this industry from being established along the Gulf coast, including Alabama.

Beginning in 2009, Auburn University’s Marine Extension and Research Center and Auburn University Shellfish Lab’s Dr. Bill Walton, partnered with Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, began to tackle the hurdles to this industry in Alabama, conducting research to identify the most cost-effective methods of raising oysters best suited to the region. Auburn partnered with a number of industry members to share the results and identify research priorities moving forward. This led to additional research into culture methods, marketing aspects, permitting questions and food safety. In addition, Auburn University permitted a 32-acre oyster farm ‘business park’ and conducted a hands-on training program where participants established commercial oyster farms within this park.

Building off this one business park, nine new commercial oyster farms have been established in Alabama, with a 2014 harvest value exceeding $500,000, which is expected to exceed $1 million in 2015, increasing incomes and generating local jobs (at least 20 on-farm jobs). At least 5 wholesalers in Alabama also profited from the sales of these oysters.

Two new oyster equipment companies were established in Alabama, with total sales inception over $200,000. Several applications for new commercial farms are pending the results of the Alabama governor’s review board mandated by Alabama House Bill 361 (on which Dr. Walton served.)  In partnership with Organized Seafood Association of Alabama (OSAA), Auburn has conducted a hands-on training program Oyster Farming Fundamentals in this park, which has trained 16 adult students that have collectively raised 350,000 oyster seed, and developing a ‘vo-tech’ program that trains high school students to be oyster farmers. Additionally, this park has served as a valuable collaborative research testing ground, producing published research, theses, Extension publications, and serving as a regional template.

Looking ahead, and in partnership with Auburn’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, the Department of Biosystems Engineering and the Auburn University Radio Frequency Identification Laboratory, experts at the Auburn University Shellfish Lab plan to establish and manage (in cooperation with industry associations such as Organized Seafood Association of Alabama) three 100-acre oyster aquaculture parks in Alabama, with each park supporting sixteen 5-acre oyster farms (allowing lanes among the farms for passage) as well as a hands-on training area. Each 5-acre oyster farm is projected (conservatively) to harvest 500,000 oysters per year, grossing $250,000 per year, netting $125,000 per year, and supporting at least 3 full-time positions per year. Each park will gross $4 million per year and create 48 full-time positions, without considering any supporting industries (gear sales, wholesalers, etc.). Collectively, the planned network of oyster farming parks is projected create 144 full-time positions, with an annual harvest value of $12 million. Furthermore, trainees from each park may opt to establish independent operations outside the oyster farm parks, creating additional jobs and income (as has been observed in the initial oyster farming park).

Collectively, this network of oyster farm parks have the potential to create 144 full time and numerous part-time ‘blue-green’ jobs and produce a harvest with an annual harvest value of $12 million in Alabama, within coastal communities that have struggled to prosper while preserving their tradition of working on the water.  Beyond the direct jobs and income created, this network of parks is expected to benefit a number of ancillary industries, including boatyards, commercial fishermen suppliers, wholesalers, truckers, restaurants, etc. 

Alabama is historically the #1 processor of oysters in the U.S. This new oyster farming technique, fostered in a unique business park environment, will only increase the economic impact of an industry that already accounts for at least tens of millions of dollars per year in Alabama.

To learn more, check out a couple of great (short) videos: Redefining Gulf Oysters  and For the Love of Oysters: Alabama's Oyster Farmers

Chef David Bancroft is tireless in his efforts to find the best ingredients for the fresh, new interpretations of Southern classics he cooks up in his kitchen at Acre restaurant in Auburn. He's so committed to sourcing those ingredients as close to his kitchen as possible that he grows as many as he can on the one-acre parcel the restaurant occupies on Glenn Avenue. However, in a complex, modern food system, it can sometimes be difficult to access, say, Alabama seafood, just in time to introduce a special dish to his restaurant's hip, ever-evolving menu.

This is a lesson he learned the hard way last winter when he decided to throw a party in honor of the lowly oyster. Hoping to take advantage of the peak in oyster flavor and texture that occurs when Alabama's coastal waters cool down in winter, and knowing that a handful of folks on the coast were farming the salty bivalves, Bancroft attempted to procure thousands of them for his event. To his disappointment, the system wasn't in place to bring in the number he needed just in time for his first oyster social, and he resorted to sourcing the main ingredient from Virginia's Chesapeake Bay.

Regardless of their provenance, the oysters were a hit, and the social was such a success that the chef decided to host a reprise – the Alabama Oyster Social – a sold out event at Acre restaurant Jan. 30. Obviously, Alabama-farmed oysters were the stars of the show.

Thanks to a long-time family connection, Bancroft knew just where to find the help he needed to get a ton of oysters from the coast to his kitchen for this year's event: the Auburn University School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences. Bancroft's family and SFAAS Interim Director John Jensen go way back, 35 years to be exact, to the beginning of Jensen's work with Paul Kennedy, Bancroft's maternal grandfather and a catfish and tilapia farmer in Hartford, Alabama. Having witnessed SFAAS researchers' work on his granddad's farm, Bancroft knew the value of their efforts to establish new markets for sustainably grown products and to streamline processes for the Alabamians who produce them. He also knew about the researchers' efforts to get oyster farming off the ground – literally and figuratively – in communities long dependent on the state's wild fisheries.

One of the leaders in Auburn's oyster farming efforts is Bill Walton, a fisheries and aquaculture expert and former part-time Cape Cod oyster farmer who relocated to the Gulf Coast five years ago. As leader of the Auburn University Shellfish Laboratory on Dauphin Island and a specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Walton hopes to one day see "branded" oysters coming from each of the farms he's working with – each known for a unique taste, texture, appearance or some other characteristic, and each sought after by chefs like Bancroft and those who will join him in serving up the shellfish at the social. The social will feature a variety of Alabama premium oysters, including Isle Dauphines, Mon Louis', Murder Points, Point aux Pins and Southern Pearls, and a number of the oyster farmers and their families will be a part of the festivities.

So, what exactly is an oyster social?

"It's not a sit-down meal," said Bancroft, who has recruited some of the South's most acclaimed young chefs to develop a menu that will not disappoint. "It's a party for a purpose."

Chef Adam Evans of Atlanta's The Optimist, Chef Jason Stanhope of FIG in Charleston and fellow Alabama chefs Rob McDaniel and Wesley True helped Bancroft transform the farm-fresh delicacies into bite-sized dishes deserving of celebration.

In addition to oysters, the event featured tastings from Southern beverage makers Cathead Vodka, Back Forty Beer, Sazerac and others. While enjoying food, drink and live country music from Mobile natives BB Palmer and Kudzu, guests may not realized exactly what the purpose of the party was. But Bancroft stressed that the whole idea was to highlight the quality of Alabama-farmed oysters and the value of related research Auburn fisheries is doing.

"This event was a collaborative effort to support those who make their living from the Gulf and the Auburn researchers who help them succeed," Bancroft said. "These colleagues and I in the food and beverage industry understand the ecological and economic value of sustainable fisheries, and in particular, we wanted to highlight the quality of sustainably farmed oysters being produced on Alabama's coast."

Published: 02/05/2015

By: Mary Catherine Gaston

The results are in on Deepwater Horizon oil spill research conducted by an Auburn University postdoctoral researcher, and her study indicates microscopic animals at the base of the food web that were harmed during the 2010 oil spill have recovered.

The researcher, Pamela Brannock of the Department of Biological Sciences in Auburn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, or COSAM, together with a team from Auburn Professor Kenneth Halanych’s lab and the University of Texas San Antonio, gathered and analyzed sediment samples taken before and after the oil reached Dauphin Island. The samples provided a basis for comparison to assess how the microscopic communities of marine invertebrates that live between the sand grains, or meiofauna, fared the oil spill.

An initial study, conducted by Halanych and colleagues at the University of New Hampshire, revealed an increased presence of fungus in meiofaunal communities. According to the study, a rise in fungus indicated organismal death, and COSAM researchers were concerned that oil, or perhaps dispersants used to clean up the spill, may have been responsible for irreversibly harming meiofaunal communities.

Brannock’s latest research results indicate the fungus that was present in large amounts in the sediment immediately after the oil spill is no longer there, which means the microscopic marine invertebrates are no longer dying at an alarming rate.

“For one year, people from the Halanych Lab intermittently collected sediment samples at five intertidal locations throughout Dauphin Island and Mobile Bay,” Brannock said. “We would freeze the sediment immediately on dry ice and then store it in the minus 80 degree freezer when we came back. Coming back into the lab we would do this process called ‘decanting,’ which is basically agitating the sediment in order to release the organisms. We would then isolate the meiofauna, or animals, on a sieve, and we would extract the DNA from that material. We would then send the DNA off to be sequenced, and we used computers and bioinformatics to determine which animals were present in the communities sampled.”

Researchers are relieved that the microscopic invertebrates seem to no longer be in danger of mass destruction. However, Brannock’s research also shows that while fungus is no longer present, there has been a significant shift in the composition of meiofaunal communities compared to pre-spill communities. The research was published in The Biological Bulletin at this link: http://www.biolbull.org/content/227/2/161.full.pdf+html.

“These communities of small organisms have recovered from the oil spill, but we are still trying to assess how much natural variation exists in these communities,” Halanych said. “These communities are important because they are at the base of the food web, and they are also critically involved in helping pass nutrients and chemicals back and forth from the sediment to the water column. Pamela has continued to look quite extensively at these small organisms to see how they are faring and whether their communities are changing.”

Halanych said this kind of research is critically important to assessing the health of the Gulf Coast ecosystem.

Auburn University researchers continue to investigate effects of the oil spill

“One of the things we have learned is that the effects from an environmental catastrophe like this can take a long time to be realized,” Halanych said. “One of the main reasons we should be concerned with or interested in studying the effects is, in all likelihood, another spill is going to occur. The Gulf Coast region has a huge number of rigs, about 4,000, and we keep going into deeper and deeper water to drill. As you move into deeper water, the engineering challenges become greater and greater and greater. The concern is another big blowout, like the Deepwater Horizon, may happen in the Gulf. The hope is we have collected enough information about the Deepwater Horizon spill that we can apply that knowledge to the next spill and be able to control the damage a little bit better.”

As a member of the Gulf of Mexico Research Board, Halanych has his finger on the pulse of oil-spill-related research in the Gulf. The 20 scientists that make up the board are tasked with distributing $500 million over a 10-year period for oil spill research. The board awards funds to investigators based on a highly competitive, peer-reviewed proposal process. BP provided the funding for the Gulf of Mexico Research Board, but the funding is now independent of the multinational oil-and-gas company.

“This work continues, and it has already made a huge difference for the Gulf Coast region,” Halanych said. “Unfortunately, in many ways the Gulf Coast is the forgotten coast in terms of national funding priorities. The west coast, especially southern California, and the northeast really have major marine and oceanographic efforts, and there is a lot of money that goes there. The Gulf Coast does have institutions but typically federal funding does not flow in the same way to these areas. This research initiative is helping with that – it is helping to stimulate scientific research, and one of the things we are hoping is we will be able to build much stronger capacity so in the future we can address societal concerns and national research priorities.”

Halanych’s group will continue to investigate effects of the oil spill on the Gulf Coast. Brannock plans to continue her research into the composition of meiofaunal communities in the Gulf region and how they change over time so she can establish a baseline dataset for the next time an event like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurs. The Halanych Lab has also received soil samples from various NOAA cruises throughout the Gulf of Mexico taken right after the spill and a year after the spill. The lab is working to compare the meiofaunal communities in samples from sites located within or near the spill to communities present in samples from areas that were not impacted by the spill.

“As the spill was happening, a lot of people around the coast realized this was going to be a big deal, and people at Auburn, including researchers in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, started mobilizing because we knew there were going to be things that needed to be studied,” said Halanych. “COSAM researchers have stayed involved because we want to know the effects through time. We want to know how this will be a lasting problem or if this will be a lasting problem, and we want to be ready for the next oil spill.”

To learn more about Auburn’s research related to the oil spill, check out: Auburn Speaks: The Oil Spill of 2010.

by Candis Birchfield

Media: http://youtu.be/my7BsMFr-WI