Ph.D. Defense Seminar of Colin Eimers

Examining the Adaptive Capacity of the North Carolina Oyster Farming Industry in the Face of Summer Mortality

Shellfish aquaculture, specifically oyster farming, is a rapidly growing industry in North Carolina. Similar to finfish aquaculture and commercial harvest industries, oyster farming is subjected to a wide range of economic, regulatory, environmental, and anthropogenic stressors that compound upon the industry. Specifically, the North Carolina shellfish industry has withstood immense pressures in the past five years including increased tropical events and regulatory pressures, a changing business climate, and a drastic increase in catastrophic ‘summer mortality’ events for farmers growing Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica). Understanding these pressures can improve both industry and farm level adaptive capacity through behavior modification, regulatory collaboration, improved site selection, and grow-out practices.

The purpose of this study is to establish an industry framework that identifies and prioritizes the most important stressors affecting oyster farming in North Carolina. This will be done in multiple stages: (1) examining summer mortality at a farm specific level to identify key stressors and environmental parameters impacting oyster health; (2) investigating oyster growers’ perceptions of mortality events, their strategies to try and decrease loss from mortality, mitigating factors affecting their ability to respond to mortality, and various farm-level behaviors across the industry; (3) bringing environmental stressors and industry practices into the context of industry growth in an applicable framework to be utilized by industry stakeholders within North Carolina that is also applicable to oyster farming industries in other states on the east coast.