A Method for siting and prioritizing the removal of derelict vessels in Florida Coastal Waters: test applications in the Florida Keys

Increased boating activities and new waterfront developments have contributed an estimated 3,000 dismantled, abandoned, junked, wrecked, derelict vessels to Florida coastal waters. This report outlines a method of siting and prioritizing derelict vessel removal using the Florida Keys as a test area. The data base was information on 240 vessels, obtained from Florida Marine Patrol files. Vessel location was plotted on 1:250,000 regional and 1:5,000 and 1:12,000 site maps. Type of vessel, length, hull material, engine, fuel tanks, overall condition, afloat and submerged characteristics, and accessibility, were used to derive parametric site indices of removal priority and removal difficulty. Results indicate 59 top priority cases which should be the focus of immediate clean up efforts in the Florida Keys. Half of these cases are rated low to moderate in removal difficulty; the remainder are difficult to remove. Removal difficulty is a surrogate for removal cost: low difficulty -low cost, high difficulty - high cost. The rating scheme offers coastal planners options of focusing removal operations either on (1) specific areas with clusters of high priority derelict vessels or on (2) selected targeted derelicts at various, specific locations. (PDF has 59 pages.)

Marine cage culture and the environment: twenty-first century science informing a sustainable industry

Technological innovation has made it possible to grow marine finfish in the coastal and open ocean. Along with this opportunity comes environmental risk. As a federal agency charged with stewardship of the nation’s marine resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requires tools to evaluate the benefits and risks that aquaculture poses in the marine environment, to implement policies and regulations which safeguard our marine and coastal ecosystems, and to inform production designs and operational procedures compatible with marine stewardship. There is an opportunity to apply the best available science and globally proven best management practices to regulate and guide a sustainable United States (U.S.) marine finfish farming aquaculture industry. There are strong economic incentives to develop this industry, and doing so in an environmentally responsible way is possible if stakeholders, the public and regulatory agencies have a clear understanding of the relative risks to the environment and the feasible solutions to minimize, manage or eliminate those risks. This report spans many of the environmental challenges that marine finfish aquaculture faces. We believe that it will serve as a useful tool to those interested in and responsible for the industry and safeguarding the health, productivity and resilience of our marine ecosystems. This report aims to provide a comprehensive review of some predominant environmental risks that marine fish cage culture aquaculture, as it is currently conducted, poses in the marine environment and designs and practices now in use to address these environmental risks in the U.S. and elsewhere. Today’s finfish aquaculture industry has learned, adapted and improved to lessen or eliminate impacts to the marine habitats in which it operates. What progress has been made? What has been learned? How have practices changed and what are the results in terms of water quality, benthic, and other environmental effects? To answer these questions we conducted a critical review of the large body of scientific work published since 2000 on the environmental impacts of marine finfish aquaculture around the world. Our report includes results, findings and recommendations from over 420 papers, primarily from peer-reviewed professional journals. This report provides a broad overview of the twenty-first century marine finfish aquaculture industry, with a targeted focus on potential impacts to water quality, sediment chemistry, benthic communities, marine life and sensitive habitats. Other environmental issues including fish health, genetic issues, and feed formulation were beyond the scope of this report and are being addressed in other initiatives and reports. Also absent is detailed information about complex computer simulations that are used to model discharge, assimilation and accumulation of nutrient waste from farms. These tools are instrumental for siting and managing farms, and a comparative analysis of these models is underway by NOAA.

Fish pass design - criteria for the design and approval of fish passes and other structures to facilitate the passage of migratory fish in rivers

Many of British rivers hold stocks of salmon (Salmo salar L.) and sea trout (Salmo trutta L.) and during most of the year some of the adult fish migrate upstream to the head waters where, with the advent of winter, they will eventually spawn. For a variety of reasons, including the generation of power for milling, improving navigation and measuring water flow, man has put obstacles in the way of migratory fish which have added to those already provided by nature in the shape of rapids and waterfalls. While both salmon and sea trout, particularly the former, are capable of spectacular leaps the movement of fish over man-made and natural obstacles can be helped, or even made possible, by the judicious use of fish passes. These are designed to give the fish an easier route over or round an obstacle by allowing it to overcome the water head difference in a series of stages ('pool and traverse' fish pass) or by reducing the water velocity in a sloping channel (Denil fish pass). Salmon and sea trout make their spawning runs at different flow conditions, salmon preferring much higher water flows than sea trout. Hence the design of fish passes requires an understanding of the swimming ability of fish (speed and endurance) and the effect of water temperature on this ability. Also the unique features of each site must be appreciated to enable the pass to be positioned so that its entrance is readily located. As well as salmon and sea trout, rivers often have stocks of coarse fish and eels. Coarse fish migrations are generally local in character and although some obstructions such as weirs may allow downstream passages only, they do not cause a significant problem. Eels, like salmon and sea trout, travel both up and down river during the course of their life histories. However, the climbing power of elvers is legendary and it is not normally necessary to offer them help, while adult silver eels migrate at times of high water flow when downstream movement is comparatively easy: for these reasons neither coarse fish nor eels are considered further. The provision of fish passes is, in many instances, mandatory under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. This report is intended for those involved in the planning, siting, construction and operation of fish passes and is written to clarify the hydraulic problems for the biologist and the biological problems for the engineer. It is also intended to explain the criteria by which the design of an individual pass is assessed for Ministerial Approval.