PROJECTS

SHELLFISH SITE CAPABILITY EVALUATION AND MAPPING STUDIES

Proper selection of a growing site is critical to any shellfish culture venture. First and foremost the site must support the survival and optimum growth of the species of interest. Secondly the site must be situated or have properties that allow the shellfish farmer to be financially successful.

The capability of a site refers strictly to biophysical environmental parameters and mitigators which will affect the ability of a site to support the culture of a given species of shellfish. Suitability of a culture site is determined by parameters such as: socio-economic, resource use, infrastructure and marketing that affect the viability of a proposed operation.

In order to assess biophysical capability in a standardized method, Oyster Habitat Suitability Models were adapted by Brian Kingzett and Aquametrix Research to the development of a Site Capability Index model for assessing the biophysical capability of coastal areas to support commercial culture of shellfish species. Since its publication, the BC Ministry of Fisheries has been carrying out an initiative to map coastal BC and determine baseline information for shellfish culture biophysical capability for use in land-use planning and aquaculture development.

Over 8 years, Brian Kingzett and other team members have participated or led field surveys for this initiative on the West Coast Vancouver Island, Strait of Georgia, Central, North Coast and Queen Charlotte Islands working in conjunction with other firms. Stephanie Richards has been responsible for skippering and providing field management of remote surveys encompassing the Queen Charlotte Islands, Northern British Columbia and Seymour and Belize Inlets.

During beach surveys, teams record a range of biophysical characteristics take digital photographs of each site. Oceanographic information on waterways is collected using sophisticated recording sensors (CTD) for summer and winter extremes of temperature and salinity in the upper 50 metres of seawater. Once collected this information is entered into a database and electronic mapping system (GIS) developed by AXYS Environmental Consultants.

Results of these surveys may be found on client website: (ftp site)
ftp://ftp.gis.luco.gov.bc.ca/pub/coastal/sf_capability/