How Will Businesses Stay Afloat With Rising Seas?

Downtown Wickford, RI is at risk to storm surge and sea-level rise.

Giving Business an Adaptation Boost: With the threat of stronger storms
and sea level rise, a key concern is making sure business — one sector
of coastal communities — keeps its head above water. CRC continues its
efforts to provide targeted technical assistance to the private sector
statewide, educating them about chief climate change threats, and
building their confidence to work with tools enabling them to step
forward on their own in protecting people and assets. A domestic
project, “Risk Reduction for Small Business Resiliency,” is supporting a
CRC team effort, with Pam Rubinoff as the lead, to develop a series of
industry focused manuals — marinas are an example of the kinds of
businesses represented — that will provide companies with step-by-step
guidance for preparing game plans that make them able to withstand the
flooding and other threats posed by storms and strong sea level rise.
The project is led by RPS, a global planning corporation, which holds
that the guides and “our approach will allow small businesses to emerge
as leaders in climate preparedness by maximizing opportunities and
minimizing risks.” Through other programs supported in the CRC
portfolio, Pam and the “CR,” or Coastal Resiliency, team also spent the
fall stocking the resiliency toolbox — an expanded PREP RI (Providing
Resilience Education for Planning Preparedness in Rhode Island)
initiative, for example, as well as the completed Rhode Island Shoreline
Change Special Area Management Plan (Beach SAMP) documents — so
businesses as well as public and community sectors can continue their
adaptation efforts.

Flooding estimate for downtown Wickford. See STORMTOOLS.

The STORMTOOLS map above shows flooding zones in downtown Wickford, RI — the white represents 3 ft. of sea level rise, while the turquoise is 7 ft of rise. The photo at the top of the story was taken at the intersection in the NW corner of the map..

CRC’s Sea Level Stick is on the Move

Teresa Crean presented to URI Professor Richard Sheridan’s junior class landscape architecture students as they toured the Charlestown, RI coastline to consider long term adaptation measures for the town’s coastal neighborhoods. Charlestown’s GIS coordinator Steve McCandless and URI Ocean Engineering Professor Emeritus Malcolm Spaulding were on hand to discuss the local context and modeling that has been completed to assess coastal risk. Sea level stick was handed off to the students so they could visualize future sea level scenarios at the water’s edge.

Advancing Coastal Resiliency in Rhode Island and Beyond

Pam Rubinoff leads a panel at the Coastal Resiliency Symposium in Fall 2018.

At CRC, there’s a team approach to ensuring Rhode Island’s decision-makers and planners have the knowledge, tools and hands-on expertise they need to build
their capacities for implementing adaptive measures to protect people
and property from flooding, a key impact of strong storms and sea level
rise. Through a variety of programs supported by public and charitable
funders, coastal managers Pam Rubinoff (above) and Teresa Crean (below) are providing in-demand assistance to Rhode Island coastal communities in need, and
often to other places outside the Ocean State. For example, Pam
moderated a special Coastal Resiliency Symposium (October 16/URI
Narragansett Bay Campus) in October that was convened for the public by
U.S. Congressman James Langevin. Pam is also playing a leadership role in a Business Resiliency partnership providing guidance to industries statewide and working with civic leaders in Providence. Learn more about some of her work here:

How Will Businesses Stay Afloat With Rising Seas?

Last Fall, Teresa Crean shared coastal resiliency technical expertise on a study tour of Monhegan Island, ME, that was sponsored by The Island Institute (Rockland), and she traveled to Florida to learn more about their initiatives. This past spring and summer she has met with communities around the State. Here’s a link to a recent example:

READ: EcoRI Story on Watch Hill meeting.

Teresa Crean presents to a group at the Monhegan Island Library. — Teresa Crean presents to a group at the Monhegan Island Library also in October.

Shellfish Farmhand Training Program Underway

CRC, with its sister program, Rhode Island Sea Grant, in partnership with The Education Exchange RI (Ed. Exchange) and the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association (ECSGA), has been awarded nearly $750,000 in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop and provide enhanced training for prospective farmhands for Rhode Island’s thriving aquaculture industry. The project was one of 22 selected nationally to further advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture industry in the U.S. During the three-year effort, CRC Sustainable Fisheries Manager Azure Cygler will work closely with Cameron Ennis, Ed. Exchange Executive Director, and Dr. Robert Rheault, ECSGA Executive Director, to develop and provide an online job training curriculum, modeled after the successful in-person program led by Ennis and Rheault. The program is specifically designed to serve the needs of those seeking to secure work as farmhands within the state’s growing shellfish aquaculture industry. See more about the NOAA awards at: https://seagrant.noaa.gov/News/Article/ArtMID/1660/ArticleID/2700/Sea-Grant-Announces-2018-Aquaculture-Research-Awards

Think Blue, We do

URI’s Coastal Resources Center leads major statewide initiative on Rhode Island’s ‘blue economy’

Rubinoff Participates in URI Coastal Resiliency Symposium

Coastal Resiliency Symposium, October 16, 2018

CRC’s Pam Rubinoff was the panel moderator for the Coastal Resiliency Symposium hosted at the Graduate School of Oceanography. Congressman James Langevin, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and URI experts were brought together to discuss the problems associated with extreme weather – storm surge and flooding, as it affects the military installations and the civilian side of the Rhode Island coastline.

Watch the event here: https://web.uri.edu/coastalresilience/

Indonesians Come with Coastal Carbon Concerns

Group of Indonesians visited URI in September for a training course on blue carbon.

This September the Coastal Resources Center hosted a friendly yet focused group of scientists and managers from Indonesia for a training course on blue carbon. What is blue carbon? Well, as carbon dioxide levels continue to increase in the atmosphere, nations are looking for ways to do their part to offset carbon emissions, also known as reducing their “carbon footprint”. Blue carbon, is carbon that is stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, and Indonesia is well-endowed with coastal ocean organic matter, having the largest extent of mangrove forests on Earth. In addition to being important areas for carbon sequestration, mangroves are critical habitat for healthy fisheries, biodiversity and erosion protection. However, deforestation in Indonesia and other countries for palm oil and fish farm harvesting is leading to rapid mangrove losses around the world. As part of the two-week training course, the group engaged in lectures, labs and field trips to local RI sites to learn about various aspects of carbon and coastal management.

Participant learns how to measure tree height to estimate carbon content.

The Indonesian government supported 14 participants from various provinces to study and think about blue carbon science, economics and policy. Glenn Ricci and Kim Kaine managed the complex course logistics. Classes and trips were led by CRC’s Azure Cygler, Peter Freeman, Cathy McNally, Glenn Ricci, Don Robadue and Director J.P. Walsh as well as Emi Uchita from URI’s Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Participants also benefited from interactions with local and visiting experts including Drs. David Lagomasino (NASA and Univ. of Maryland), Simon Engelhart (URI Geosiences), and Chaitlin Chaffee, Coastal Policy Analyst for the RI Coastal Resources Management Council. The course was enjoyable for all, and participants and CRC staff look forward to future collaborations to help address these complex coastal issues.

Indonesian participants explore a salt marsh with Drs. David Lagomasino (bearded guy, UMD and NASA), Simon Engelhart (green shirt, URI), and J.P. Walsh (not shown, CRC Director).

Study Tour Brings High-Level Delegation from Senegal

A study tour was organized by the USAID/COMFISH Plus project from April 28 to May 4, 2018 in collaboration with USAID/Senegal, USAID/Washington and other U.S. Government agencies. The delegation visited Rhode Island and Washington DC, and shared experiences on the management of fisheries resources, including strategies to address illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) and to identify avenues for collaboration with US institutions working in the same field, including NOAA, USCG, the State Department and the Stimson Center. The delegation was led by the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Economy (MPEM), and included the Director of Fisheries Protection and Surveillance (DPSP), the Director of Fisheries Processing Industries (DITP), the Coordinator of the Research and Planning Unit (CEP) of the MPEM, the Head of the Inspection and Control Division of the DPSP and USAID/Senegal.

Minister of Fisheries from Senegal (center) and other delegates visiting the RI Department of Environmental Management with CRC host Najih Lazar (seccond from right)

The visit provided a number of key lessons in addressing IUU fishing:

The importance of coordination and information exchange between national and regional institutions;
Mutual understanding of the management and surveillance system for an improved grasp of the roles and responsibilities of the different structures involved;
Sharing of visions and issues of IUU fishing;
The importance of research and scientific input to decision-making;
The importance of the ecosystem approach with a broad coordination of the institutions involved in the management of maritime and territorial issues;
The importance of statistical data (fishing effort, catches) in the management policy governing the stocks and fisheries;
The importance of traceability of fishery products.

Members of the Senegal Study Tour delegation visited the U.S. Coast Guard station at Point Judith, RI.

Sharing Experience, Knowledge Grows Oyster Harvests in West Africa

This May a study tour was conducted to enable oyster harvesters and farmers from Benin and The Gambia to share their experiences and advice with counterparts in Ghana.

A canoe filled with people poles out from shore — The study tour sets out in Benin to learn more about best practices.

The Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), funded by USAID and implemented by CRC, stresses a peer-to-peer approach to spreading knowledge within West Africa. The approach creates opportunities for continued learning, mutual support, joint initiatives and advocacy for sustainable management. Peer-to-peer information exchanges are also driving the formation of new networks of oyster harvesting communities and the associations that can represent and support them. Shellfishing—an often forgotten and “invisible” fishery—is becoming better recognized and valued for its economic and nutritional contributions.

The tour brought seven women, oyster harvesters and farmers in Ghana’s Densu estuary and representatives from SFMP local partners, to Ouidah and Grand-popo, Benin to visit their peers. Organized by SFMP, the tour was facilitated by Karen Kent, a coastal manager at URI’s Coastal Resource Center. Two members of TRY Oyster Women’s Association, a trade organization in The Gambia, were also instrumental partners.

The Ghanaians found they’ll return to their own communities with valuable knowledge to share:

In a circled of onlookers, a woman holds a plate of shucked oysters. — Women from Benin and The Gambia demonstrate how to make oysters a valuable product.

They were delighted to learn of new ways to maximize oyster growth and will identify opportunities to apply the new techniques.
In peer-to-peer discussions, women from Benin demonstrated the importance of removing grit from the final product and best practices for post-harvest handling and processing.
While forming and maintaining a trade association can be difficult, the Ghanaians heard that when diverse needs and priorities are taken into account, associations empower local communities to achieve sustainable resource management.
It was also clear that preservation and protection of mangrove ecosystems must be a high priority. Oyster harvesters and farmers have a pivotal role to play in stewarding this resource.

“All of our priorities and objectives for the study tour were achieved in full and we look forward to the many opportunities it has created for collaboration at all levels,” said Kent.

These participants will help Ghana’s estuaries become as successful as those in The Gambia and Benin. The women are learning for and among themselves how to manage mangrove forests, to run a small business, and to advocate for the best practices and good governance that will protect their income. They’re gaining support from many corners, including local and national governance, universities, and international institutions, and they’re finding strength in numbers throughout West Africa.