Animal Sciences Commons^™

Tracing Atlantic Sea Scallops Using Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Technology, Will Shoup

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Traceable seafood can be linked back to its origin and method of catch. Improving the traceability of marine organisms involves establishing a transparent Chain of Custody (CoC) by collecting data at checkpoints throughout the supply chain, from ship to shore to store. This report explores the feasibility of integrating Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology into the United States Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) fishery in order to improve traceability. This report serves as a forward-looking evaluation of RFID technology that is intended to inform interested stakeholders of its functionality and capabilities. It is not intended to serve as a management …

Current And Future Remote Sensing Of Harmful Algal Blooms In The Chesapeake Bay To Support The Shellfish Industry, Jl Wolny, Mc Tomlinson, S Schollaert Uz, Ta Egerton, Jr Mckay, A Meredith, Ks Reece, Gp Scott, Rp Stumpf

VIMS Articles

Harmful algal bloom (HAB) species in the Chesapeake Bay can negatively impact fish, shellfish, and human health via the production of toxins and the degradation of water quality. Due to the deleterious effects of HAB species on economically and environmentally important resources, such as oyster reef systems, Bay area resource managers are seeking ways to monitor HABs and water quality at large spatial and fine temporal scales. The use of satellite ocean color imagery has proven to be a beneficial tool for resource management in other locations around the world where high-biomass, nearly monospecific HABs occur. However, remotely monitoring HABs …

Consequences Of Drift And Carcass Decomposition For Estimating Sea Turtle Mortality Hotspots, Bianca Santos, David M. Kaplan, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Susan G. Barco, Katherine L. Mansfield, James P. Manning

VIMS Articles

Sea turtle strandings provide important mortality information, yet knowledge of turtle carcass at-sea drift and decomposition characteristics are needed to better understand and manage where these mortalities occur. We used empirical sea turtle carcass decomposition and drift experiments in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA to estimate probable carcass oceanic drift times and quantify the impact of direct wind forcing on carcass drift. Based on the time period during which free-floating turtle carcasses tethered nearshore were buoyant, we determined that oceanic drift duration of turtle carcasses was highly dependent on water temperature and varied from 2 to 15 days during typical …

Re-Emergence Of The Harmful Algal Bloom Species Alexandrium Monilatum In The Chesapeake Bay: Assessing Bloom Dynamics And Potential Health Impacts, Sarah K.D. Pease, Kimberly S. Reece, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein

Presentations

Effective management of harmful algal blooms (HABs) within a region requires an understanding of species-specific HAB spatial and temporal distributions, bloom dynamics, as well as potential health impacts. In 2007, the southern Chesapeake Bay witnessed its first blooms of the HAB species Alexandrium monilatum. Since then, A. monilatum has bloomed in the region almost annually. A. monilatum produces the toxin ‘goniodomin A’ and is suspected in local mass mortalities of oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) grown for aquaculture and restoration projects. Representatives from Virginia’s multimillion dollar oyster aquaculture industry recently expressed great concern over A. monilatum impacts to their businesses; field …

Johns Point Landing Living Shoreline – Ecological Monitoring : Final Report To Gloucester County, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly Mitchell, Robert Isdell

Reports

VIMS monitoring activities consisted of three components:

• Monitoring of marsh vegetation establishment after planting

• Documenting ribbed mussel and oyster recruitment and growth in experimental bags of oyster shell at the living shoreline

• Monitoring infaunal communities prior to and after living shoreline implementation

Estuarine Blue Infrastructure: Final Priority Conservation Areas For Chesapeake Bay And Its Tidal Tributaries And Back Bay – Version 2.0 (Revised 09/2010), Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

This project is an extension of earlier efforts within the coastal zone of Virginia to build a platform for enhanced Blue and Green Infrastructure planning. This project is motivated by an interest in extending statewide conservation efforts into estuarine systems and recognition that land use decisions on the upland effect water quality and habitat health in the receiving waters. The project in its entirety has been accomplished in distinct parts. Part one develops a Cumulative Resource Assessment to evaluate the distribution of aquatic natural resources within waters of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay waters, Back Bay of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the …

Shallow Water Fish Communities And Coastal Development Stressors In The Lynnhaven River, Donna M. Bilkovic, David Stanhope, Kory Angstadt

Reports

Coastal development pressures in the Mid-Atlantic have been attributed to significant negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems. The Lynnhaven River watershed, located in the southernmost extent of the Chesapeake Bay and encompassing Virginia Beach, is an example of a shallow-water tidal system under intense development pressure that is confronted with multiple and often conflicting coastal management issues. Rapid development in and around the City of Virginia Beach over the past few decades has led to the loss of natural buffers and habitat (e.g. oyster, wetlands and seagrasses), increased sedimentation, and degraded water quality. The Lynnhaven Ecosystem Restoration Project, led by U.S …

Can We Predict Joint Effects Of Hypoxia And Metals On Fish Survival?, Michael C. Newman

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

Fish are suddenly exposed to hypoxic conditions during diverse events such as seiche- or turnover-related water movements, bottom water release from reservoirs, ice-over of eutrophic arctic lakes, and rapid shifts in respiration: photosynthesis associated with cultural eutrophication. In each case, chemical equilibria established under hypoxic conditions that result in metal dissolution and accumulation suddenly shift toward chemical equilibria of oxic conditions. Critical changes in speciation include those determining the free ion activity that, as expressed by the Free Ion Activity Model (FIAM), is often the most bioactive form of a dissolved metal. Metal phase can also change rapidly and, in …

Categorization Of Shellfish Tmdl Sites Final Report, Julie Herman, Carl Hershner, Howard Kator

Reports

There were two important goals for this project, including the assembly and compilation of digital data for the Coastal Plain and tidal waters of Virginia, and the categorization of the Division of Shellfish Sanitation (DSS) shellfish growing areas to determine if some are similar enough for water quality models to be effectively transferred from the modeled growing areas to other areas. This report summarizes the data and statistical analyses and discusses the results. Note: The digital data has a very fine resolution. The maps displayed in this report cannot convey this information on 8.5x11" paper. All digital data layers (shape …

Effects Of The June 1995 Freshet On The Main Virginia Tributaries To The Chesapeake Bay, Herbert M. Austin, Christopher F. Bonzek

VIMS Articles

Environmental conditions in the Virginian waters of the Chesapeake Bay area during the summerof 1995 have been characterized as a severe drought. This drought was punctuated on 27 June with a headwater (James and Rappahannock River) rain storm that produced a "freshet". Although it did not rain in the Tidewater area of Virginia, surface salinities were depressed by the run-off, and main-stem bottom ox}'gen levels dropped to z.ero in the James and Rappahannock rivers. The effects of the reduced oxygen were apparent on the James River oyster stock, particularly the reduction in spatfall, and to a lesser degree on the …

Procedure For Creating Digital Baylor Coverages In Arc/Info, Gary F. Anderson, J. Berchman Smithson, Anna K. Kenne

Reports

Baylor Grounds were defined by a survey of the natural oyster beds in Virginia conducted by Lt. J.B. Baylor, USN, and completed in 1894. The original purpose of the survey was to set aside naturally productive oyster beds for protection from private leasing, which was a controversial concept at the time. Hence the commonly used term 'Baylor Grounds' is synonymous with Virginia's public oystering grounds in the present day. Other surveys, conducted later, have added to the original Baylor acreage, resulting in an estimated 243, 000 acres of public oyster grounds in Virginia. For further information on the oyster industry …

Zinc Distributions In Sediments, The Common Mussel, Mytilus Edulis (L.), The American Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica (Gmelin), And The Commensal Pea Crab, Pinnotheres Ostreum (Say), Cheol Mo, Bruce Neilson

Reports

Oysters and mussels of varying sizes and sediment samples were collected from oyster beds with different salinity regimes of three Virginian coastal plain rivers: Rappahannock River. James River. and Piankatank River. Zinc concentrations of 1) soft tissues. gut contents. and shells of the oysters. 2) soft tissues of the mussels. 3) pea crabs. and 4) sediment samples were measured with a flame atomic absorption (Flame AA) spectrophotometer. Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations ·of the sediments were measured with a carbon-nitrogen analyzer. The contribution of extraneous materials. such as gut contents. faeces. and pea crabs. to the variability in oyster …

Experimental Studies Of Zinc-65 Uptake Rates By The American Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica With Regard To Salinity, Sediment Concentration, And Body Size, Cheol Mo, Bruce Neilson

Reports

Three sets of twelve oysters from the ,James River were placed in three recirculating aquaria dosed with the radioactive tracer zinc-65. All aquaria had the same amount of river bottom sediment which was kept in suspension by the water movement caused by aeration; one aquarium had twice as much tracer as the other two. The salinity of one of the low dose aquaria and. the high dose aquarium was maintained at 18 0/00: the other low dose aquarium was maintained at 1:2 0/00. All other factors were kept constant. Sediment-water-tracer mix was added to the aquaria every 12 hours. Water …

Oyster Spatfall In Virginia Rivers: 1986 Annual Summary, James Whitcomb

Reports

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) conducts weekly surveys from June through early October to obtain oyster spatfall information. Spat counts are made on oyster shells strung on wire and suspended from stakes on public and private beds. The number of spat on shells is counted each week of the spawning season to determine the potential of a particular area for receiving a strike and to predict the most likely period the strikes will occur.

Relationship Between The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab And Its Climatological Environment : Oceanographic And Atmospheric Data, Robert E. Harris Jr., Willard A. Van Engel

Reports

Monthly and annual means of 38 oceanographic and atmospheric variables, for the calendar years 1958 through 1975, are presented in tables.

Kepone® Residues In Chesapeake Bay Biota, M. E. Bender, R. J. Huggett, W. J. Hargis Jr.

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

Oysters from the James displayed variations in Kepone residue levels related to water temperature and their spawning cycle. Oyster depuralion rates were related to temperature. In summer the "biological half. life" of Kepone in oysters was about one week, while during the winter about 40 days were required for residue levels to decline by 50 per cent. Residues in blue crabs varied as a function of sex, males having considerably higher residues than females. Fin fish levels from the James varied greatly, with residue levels being dependent on species and length of residence for migratory fishes .. Average Kepone residues …

Effects Of Chlorinated Seawater On Decapod Crustaceans And Mulinia Larvae, Morris H. Roberts, Chae E. Laird, Jerome E. Illowsky

Reports

Eggs and larvae of decapod crustaceans and embryos of Mulinia laterulis were exposed to chlorinated seawater for varying periods in continuous flow systems. Mortality, developmental rate, and general behavior were recorded.

Oyster Spatfall On Shellstrings In Virginia Rivers: 1970 Annual Summary, Dexter S. Haven

Reports

The Applied Biology Department in the VIMS Division of Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering conducts. weekly surveys of oyster "setting" in Virginia rivers from the end of May through early October each year. Starting at the mouth of each river and proceeding upstream to the limits of oyster setting, the collecting areas a.re established on public and private beds. Spat counts are obtained from oyster shells strung on wire and suspended from stakes. The number of spat which set in one week on the smooth side of ea.ch shell on the string are tabulated.