US: New NOAA calculator helps oyster growers quantify their environmental benefit

Oyster growers can now prove and track how well their farms benefit the local water supply thanks to a new tool from NOAA’s Connecticut-based Milford Lab. The Aquaculture Nutrient Removal Calculator, which provides growers with a science-based estimate of how much nitrogen their farms remove from local waterways, will help farmers to demonstrate what scientists call the ecological services (nitrogen reduction capability) of their farms. The team behind the project, which included scientists from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, hopes that this will help farmers with the aquaculture permitting process. “We hope this tool will provide growers and managers with an easy-to-use way to generate defensible values and context for the ecosystem services provided by a proposed or existing farm,” NOAA Marine Ecologist Chris Schillaci said.“We’ve heard from both regulators and industry members that they need a simple, intuitive way to ...