(April 11, 2022) --

Two of the six projects funded by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium will be led by research teams associated with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. The projects focus on living shorelines and oyster aquaculture. The projects received funding in the 2022-2024 funding cycle.

The MASGC outlined each project in its recent news release. 

Living Shorelines: Does breakwater design matter to fish? 
Ronald Baker and Sarah Ramsden, University of South Alabama

This research team will use acoustic tracking of fish to determine how much time red drum, speckled trout, and sheepshead spend on four different living shoreline breakwater structures in Alabama. The team will create a metric to evaluate the success (or other) of living shorelines in enhancing fish habitat, which may be applied to future shoreline restoration efforts.

Costs and benefits of nursery techniques to improve oyster aquaculture and restoration 
Delbert Lee Smee, Dauphin Island Sea Lab; PJ Waters, Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center; and Rusty Grice, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium

This project team will determine the most cost-effective means of nursery production to improve oyster reef aquaculture and restoration while working with oyster farmers and training future scientists. The team will develop a new hatchery technique to expose oysters to predator cues and produce oysters with thicker shells, which increases their survival and marketability for both the seafood market and reef restoration. The research team also will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of different methods of spat-on-shell restoration.