Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Virginia Seafood Sustainability, Samantha E. Askin, Robert A. Fisher

Reports

Virginia’s commercial fisheries operate sustainability under a suite of management tools based upon information received from marine scientists and fishery managers who regularly conduct biological sampling of fish while tracking commercial landings and other gathering of required information. Analyses of fishing effort and overall stock conditions, as well as formulas designed to calculate threshold limits for maintaining sustainable stocks are regularly performed. Restrictions on seasons, size, days at sea, and gear are imposed as needed to achieve management supporting long-term biological sustainability.

Winter Harbor Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green

Reports

Winter Harbor is a tidal creek that flows between a sandy barrier system and an eroding marsh shoreline. It is an important waterway that provides access to the Chesapeake Bay from the Winter Harbor watershed. In the past, Winter Harbor Inlet was the only hydraulic connection from the Winter Harbor watershed and Chesapeake Bay. The two open water areas of Winter Harbor were separated by marsh channels that hydraulically connected to the mouth at the present-day Winter Harbor Inlet. The federally-defined channel at Winter Harbor was authorized by Congress in 1950. It was authorized as a 12 feet (ft) deep, …

Data Collection At Fifteen Selected Creeks In Support Of Shallow Water Dredging On Virginia’S Middle Peninsula - Methods & Data Report, Nicholas J. Dinapoli, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green, Scott Lerberg, Eduardo J. Miles, Alex Demeo, George Brooks

Reports

Federal funding has been historically available for the Army Corps of Engineers for shallow draft navigation projects. However, past and recent subsidies have not provided ample funding at levels to sustain maintenance dredging for the 17 federal navigation channels on the Middle Peninsula. Further, funding for maintenance of non-federal channels has been historically neglected by the Commonwealth of Virginia until the Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Waterway Maintenance Fund in 2018. For the past decade the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority, the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission and its member jurisdictions, and the Virginia Institute of Marine …

Cedarbush Creek Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green

Reports

Cedarbush Creek is located in Gloucester County, Virginia. It is a long, but narrow creek that empties into the York River. The mouth is a wide embayment, but farther north, the creek narrows to about 400 feet wide and extends for about 1.5 miles to its marshy headwaters. Cedarbush Creek has never been dredged, but due to shoaling within the creek, it needs dredging to accommodate vessel traffic. Oliver’s Landing, located near the mouth of Cedarbush Creek, is a working waterfront that supports commercial and recreational boaters in Gloucester. (...)

Parrotts Creek Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron W. Green

Reports

Parrotts Creek is located along the Rappahannock River in Middlesex County, VA. The mouth of the creek is about 850 ft wide, but just inside the mouth of the creek, a spit extends from the upland narrowing the creek to about 300 ft before it widens again. Overall, this is a relatively short, undeveloped creek. Most of the development (wharfs, ramps, piers) occur near the mouth. Most of the more inland areas of the creek are surrounded by woodland. The federally-authorized channel was established in 1955 due to the presence of a public ramp and landing area, as well as …

Living Shoreline Sea-Level Resiliency: Performance And Adaptive Management Of Existing Sites Year 3 Summary Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Nick J. Dinapoli

Reports

The focus of this study was to research the resiliency of rock/sand/plant living shoreline protection systems. These systems have been used in Chesapeake Bay for 40 years to reduce erosion, protect infrastructure, and create habitat that is disappearing from the shoreline as sea level rises. The goal was to determine how they have been affected by storm surge and associated wind-driven waves, sea-level rise. This data informed adaptive management strategies to create site-specific morphologically-resilient projects.

The objectives of this 3-year project is monitoring the effectiveness of nature-based resilience projects over time such as those that use hybrid living shoreline management …

Expanding The Use Of Natural And Nature-Based Infrastructure To Enhance Coastal Resiliency, Marcia Berman, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Tamia Rudnicky

Reports

The vulnerability of coastal communities and the growing risks of coastal infrastructure continue largely due to past and ongoing patterns of development in high risk areas. This project is focused on increasing the use of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) to increase resilience of coastal communities to flooding caused by extreme weather events.

Dredging Implementation Prioritization And Management For Middle Peninsula Shallow Draft Channels, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Nicholas J. Dinapoli

Reports

To develop a regional dredging program for the localities of the Middle Peninsula, a database of 120 creeks and rivers was created of its waterbodies from Tappahannock to West Point. Generally, these waterbodies can be categorized into three basic types of shallow draft channels: federally-defined, non-federal with ATONs (aids to Navigation) and non-federal without ATONs. For the Middle Peninsula there are 13 federal channels, 12 non-federal channels in creeks with ATONs, and 94 in creeks without defined channels or ATONs.

Physical parameter data was collected or created for each of these creeks. This data included creek mouth morphology, amount of …

Monitoring The Abundance Of American Shad And River Herring In Virginia’S Rivers 2020 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

This report describes the results of the twenty-third year of a continuing study to estimate the relative abundance and assess the status of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) stocks in Virginia by monitoring the spawning runs in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers in spring 2020, evaluating hatchery programs, and contributing to coast-wide assessments (ASMFC 2007, ASMFC 2020).

We also report on two fisheryindependent monitoring programs using anchor gillnets in the Rappahannock River (year 3) and the Chickahominy River (year 6; a major tributary of the James River), to determine relative abundance and stock structure for the adult spawning run of …