Acronym NA
Category
Aquaculture
Title The Improved Characterisation of Seed Mussel Beds around the Island of Ireland and the Quantification of Biomass Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Joanne Gaffney Coordinator email gaffney@bim.ie
Coordinator institution
BIM - Ireland's Seafood Development Agency (Ireland)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2009 End year 2010 Funding (€) € 20,000 Website NA Summary The Bottom Grown Mussel Industry is completely reliant on an annual harvest of seed mussel from naturally occurring beds largely situated of the East Coast of Ireland. This resource is ephemeral, with the exact location of beds and their population density subject to high annual variability. The industry was worth in excess of 25million Euro in 2005. Both the industry and regulatory authorities undertake surveys for the purposes of "stock assessment" and allocation of quota. However, there is no standard methodology and a variety of acoustic, dredge and grab sampling techniques have been applied. The proposed project will review the methodology currently in use with industry and management authority practitioners through direct interviews and the circulation of questionnaires. Where possible data in a particular that gathered by acoustic methodologies will gathered be for reanalysis. The Agri Food Biosciences Institute (AFBI) will also make available AGDS and Multi Beam Datasets gathered from seed mussel beds on the East Coast of Co Down. The study will produce revised guidelines on standardising the methodology for such first stage acoustic surveys.
The project has two main tangible deliverables: (1) The production a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the conduct of seed mussel surveys which allows for the use of a range of acoustic techniques; (2) It is intended that this technique will be applied to the acoustic data sets collected to produce simple Excel based macros to enable this approach to be transferred to the industry and managers. As well as improving seed mussel stock assessment and reducing conflicts, this study should reduce time spend on surveys with consequent reduction in fuel costs. By better targeting dredging effort the potential for collateral damage on other environmental features will be reduced and potentially reduce conflict with environmental groups.
Keywords
Monitoring;
Mussel;
Guidelines;
Open sea aquaculture;
Mollusc;
Shellfish;
Stock assessment;
Aquaculture management;
Bivalve;
Marine Region
29
West of Ireland (27.VIIb)
31
Southwest of Ireland-East (27.VIIj)
7
Irish Sea (27.VIIa)
26
Northwest Coast of Scotland and North Ireland (27.VIa)
10
Celtic Sea North (27.VIIg)
5
Marine Region Map
