Fisheries and Aquaculture

Fisheries and Aquaculture

Events

Harvesting quahogs in the waters off Rhode Island. (RI Sea Grant)
Fishing boats return to Galilee Harbor in Narragansett, R.I. (credit: RI Sea Grant)
An oyster harvester in The Gambia (TRY Oyster Women’s Association)
An oyster harvester in The Gambia (credit: TRY Oyster Women’s Association)

CRC works to develop innovative methods of research, extension and outreach to sustainably manage valuable fisheries and aquaculture resources in Rhode Island, the United States and around the globe. CRC is recognized for taking an integrated approach that considers the entire fishery system—from management of sustainable harvests and early engagement of local stakeholders to added value for the supply chain and end users.

This approach includes improved governance solutions, ecosystem-based management, capacity development and collaborative and adaptive management plans. Through its position within the URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and its partnerships with the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and other university entities, CRC is able to call on a wealth of knowledge from world-class researchers to bring the best-available science to its work, applying a learning-by-doing approach that affords rapid responses to changing realities.

As the world’s burgeoning population turns to the sea for food security, many nations aquaculture—farming of seafood, pearls, ornamentals and plants—to supplement wild catch. When developed in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, aquaculture can provide food, employment and income. If not developed properly, aquaculture can negatively impact critical coastal ecosystems and pose risks to human health. For three decades, CRC has been assisting governments and industry in nations around the world to develop responsible aquaculture through best management practices, private partnerships, public zoning and regulations.

CRC’s approach emphasizes responsible coastal management and sound environmental planning to minimize user conflicts and environmental impacts. It engages policymakers, aquaculture associations, fishing communities and civil society.

Our guiding principles: Fisheries

  • Through decades of experience and lessons learned, CRC has developed these guidelines regarding sustainable fisheries:
  • Ground the conception, execution and management of programs on sound science
  • Create inherently flexible management plans for adaptation to complex and constantly evolving needs
  • Create results-oriented programs, describing how impacts will be measured and monitored
  • Conduct monitoring and reporting in a timely manner so that responsive action can be taken
  • Involve both harvest and post-harvest segments of the industry in management and decision making
  • Promote ecosystem resilience for goods and services that conserve biodiversity
  • Promote marketing of sustainably sourced, socially responsible and high quality seafood products
  • Where appropriate, help fisheries transition from open-access and combine managed access, alternative livelihoods, collaborative management and rights-based approaches for lasting success
  • Promote engagement of all stakeholders
  • Promote social responsibility and equity as key objectives, including fair labor practices, fair prices and safe working conditions
  • Develop and adopt codes of conduct and best management practices

Our guiding principles: Sustainable aquaculture

  • Conduct feasibility studies, environmental impact assessment and financial analysis at the individual operation and ecosystem level prior to establishing and expanding a new project or testing new species production
  • Properly site the operation to reduce environmental, natural hazard and social impacts
  • Identify and protect key ecosystems that need to be conserved to ensure resource sustainability—a fundamental tool of land use management
  • Following best management practices while maintaining a sound and healthy ecosystem to achieve long-term sustainability
  • Consider potential off-site impacts of aquaculture siting, construction, and production and mitigate by maintaining adequate buffer zones and the natural environment surrounding the site as much as possible
  • Pay attention to capacity building of institutions and coordination of agencies responsible for enforcing regulations, permitting and licensing
  • Work to streamline government policy where there are overlapping, duplicative or outdated regulations and unclear agency responsibilities
  • Use practical exercises and demonstrations as well as extension services to promote best practices
  • Develop operational guides and extension materials to make information readily accessible and improve knowledge for the people who most need it
  • Apply technology that is appropriate to the knowledge, experience and capacity of producers and the local context
  • Ensure that the aquaculture industry is integrated into public decision-making processes at all levels so as to minimize undue burdens from cumbersome permitting and licensing requirements
  • Educate the wider public about the practices of aquaculture to dispel myths and help ease and minimize use conflicts
  • Facilitate dialogue with the aquaculture industry, lawmakers and other stakeholders to prioritize science needs, monitoring and best practices for all elements of the aquaculture value chain

 

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  • Women Shellfishers and Food Security Project Year 1 Annual Report Women Shellfishers and Food Security Project 15 October 2021

    In September 2020, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the University of Rhode Island (URI) the Women Shellfishers and Food Security Activity (project). With USAID, URI co-created the project in partnership with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana, the University of Ghana (UG), TRY Oyster Women’s Association in The Gambia, and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) based in Nairobi, Kenya. This project addresses the need for greater attention to food security for women shellfishers and their families while improving biodiversity conservation of the ecosystems on which their livelihoods depend. More robust models, tools, approaches, and processes are needed to enable and promote these sustainable food systems and natural resource management in coastal West Africa. The project will strengthen the evidence base, increase awareness, and equip stakeholders to adapt and apply successful approaches in areas of high potential for replication and scale-up in the eleven coastal West African countries from Senegal to Nigeria. It will draw on successful cases of a rights-based, ecosystem-based, participatory co-management approach to shellfish management by women in mangrove ecosystems in The Gambia and Ghana developed with USAID assistance. Knowledge and experience generated through the project will open up opportunities for improvement and broader application of these promising approaches in West Africa. This report documents progress on project implementation at the end of Year 1, September 15, 2020 – September 14, 2021, of this two-year project.

  • The Women Shellfishers and Food Security Project: Multivariate Analysis of the Theory of Change Model Crawford, B., Adu-Afarwuah, S., Oaks, B., Kyei-Arthur, F., Chuku, E. O., Okyere, I., Duguma, L., Carsan, S., McMullin, S., Muthee, K., Bah, A., Orero, L., Janha, F., Arnold, C. D., Kent, K. 28 September 2022

    This report is a summary of a multivariate analysis of the theory of change model of the USAID Women Shellfishers and Food Security Project, funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the University of Rhode Island (URI) and several partners from West Africa – the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana, the University of Ghana (UG), TRY Oyster Women’s Association (TRY) in The Gambia and, World Agroforestry (ICRAF). This project seeks to address the need for greater attention to food security for women shellfishers and their families while improving biodiversity conservation of the mangrove and estuarine ecosystems on which their livelihoods depend. The theory of change model put forth by this project was: IF women’s shellfish livelihoods in coastal mangrove and estuarine ecosystems in The Gambia and Ghana are improved through gender and nutrition sensitive co-management and linkages made to community based forest management in the land/seascape, THEN mangrove and estuarine biodiversity will be improved, AND IF approaches for sustainable food producing livelihoods within the coastal mangrove land/seascape contribute to a nutritionally balanced local food supply, THEN household resilience, sustainable food systems, and nutrition will improve. We refined this model and developed four major hypotheses statements to be assessed through site-based research. These were: Hypothesis 1. Improved and gender equitable management of shellfisheries increases shellfish yields, which increases shellfish consumption and income of those engaged in shellfishing. Hypothesis 2. Shellfisher mangrove management actions improve mangrove habitat which in turn improves the health of shellfish stocks. Hypothesis 3. High consumption of shellfish and increased income from shellfishing contributes to lower prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age and improves other nutrition variables. Shellfish consumption is a main contributor to reduced anemia compared to other factors such as geographic factors or household and individual characteristics. Hypothesis 4. Enriching landscapes around mangrove-shellfish estuaries systems with complementary food and nutrition sources reduces the extractive pressure on the mangroves thereby improving mangrove health and improves shellfisher household income and household food security.

  • Avaliação Participativa das Marisqueiras nos Ecossistemas Estuarinos e de Mangais da Guiné.Bissau Mancali, N., Adotey, J., Chuku, E. O., Josephs, L., Kent, K., Crawford, B. 4 August 2021

    This report details results from a participatory assessment of the scale and scope of shellfisheries and shellfish-based livelihoods as they relate to mangrove systems and coastal water bodies in Guinea-Bissau. This includes demographic and socioeconomic information on shellfish harvesters and other shellfish value chain actors, the nature of shellfishery engagement of these individuals, the status of shellfisheries and mangrove systems, and any existing governance and management regimes. Stakeholders made a number of recommendations for improving the shellfisheries. Portuguese version.

  • Spotlighting Women-Led Fisheries Livelihoods Toward Sustainable Coastal Governance: The Estuarine and Mangrove Ecosystem Shellfisheries of West Africa Chuku EO, Effah E, Adotey J, Abrokwah S, Adade R, Okyere I, Aheto DW, Kent K, Osei IK, Omogbemi ED, Adité A, Ahoedo K,Sankoh SK, Soro Y, Wélé M, Saine DF, Crawford B 18 July 2022

    The governance of coastal and marine resources remains a complex socio-ecological endeavor in many African countries, but women are leading the way and demonstrating a pathway for food fish security through rights-based co-management of shellfisheries in estuarine and mangrove ecosystems in West Africa. We report comprehensively, for the first time, the scale of estuarine and mangrove ecosystem-based shellfisheries across the West African coast (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), the gender dynamics, and implications for the sustainable management of this small-scale fishery. We find an extensive geographical coverage of active shellfisheries within these ecosystems with close to 571,000 household beneficiaries and over 50,000 harvesters, mainly women, being the primary resource users. An annual shellfish harvest of over 300,000 MT valued at USD 336 million is potentially undocumented across the region. Harvested shellfish species of economic importance comprised 18 species of mollusks, 11 species of crustaceans,and a few unidentified groups of gastropods, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The West African mangrove oyster, periwinkle, bloody cockle, whelk, and razor clam were, in that order, the most harvested estuarine shellfish. The bivalve and gastropod value chains are dominated by women harvesters at all nodes whereas women play significant roles in the processing and marketing of crustacean and cephalopod fisheries. Formal laws specific to the regulation of estuarine shellfisheries are generally nonexistent, however, the organized women shellfish harvester groups of the Tanbi wetlands (The Gambia) and Densu Delta (Ghana) have championed sustainable governance actions resulting in successful women resource user-led fisheries co-management. The elements of success and opportunities for scaling up these examples are discussed. The presence of such groups in several locations offers an entry point for replicating a similar co-management approach across the West African coast. This is an open source article published in the journal Frontiers of Marine Science 9:884715. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.884715

  • Évaluation Participative Des Pêcheries De Mollusques Et Crustacés Dans Les Écosystèmes D’estuaires Et De Mangroves Du Nigéria Omogbemi, E. D., Chuku, E. O. Adotey, J., Josephs, L., Kent, K. Crawford, B. 10 July 2021

    This report details results from a participatory assessment of the scale and scope of shellfisheries and shellfish-based livelihoods as they relate to mangrove systems and coastal water bodies in Nigeria. This includes demographic and socioeconomic information on shellfish harvesters and other shellfish value chain actors, the nature of shellfishery engagement of these individuals, the status of shellfisheries and mangrove systems, and any existing governance and management regimes. Stakeholders made a number of recommendations for improving the shellfisheries. French version.