GOMESA Application Details

1. Title of Project: Oak Island Oyster Company: Demonstrating resilient high density oyster aquaculture
2. Location of Project: Jackson County, Mississippi
3. Requesting Organization: University of Southern Mississippi
4a. Name: T. Michelle Shows
4b. Position
4c. Phone Number: 601-266-4119
4d. Fax Number
4e. Address Line 1: 118 College Drive #5157
4e. Address Line 2
4e. City, State Zip: Hattiesburg, MS 39406
4f. Email: ORA-PAM@usm.edu
5. FundingRequested: $1,195,571
Awarded Amount:: $1,195,571
6. Other State or Federal Funding Sources: No
7a. Amount of Additional Funds: $0
7b. Source of Additional Funds
8. Total Project Funds Amount: $1,195,571
9. Project Description/Overview: With the decrease in wild oyster populations, aquaculture, which now produces over 50% of fisheries products worldwide, has the potential to both supplement wild populations and support a commercial oyster aquaculture industry. Off-bottom oyster farming can diversify commercial oyster harvest by providing an opportunity to farm oysters using controlled techniques. Over the last few years, a vibrant off-bottom aquaculture industry has begun to develop across the Gulf coast to help fill the demand for safe, high-quality oysters. Even so, the majority of producers in the Gulf of Mexico are relatively small-scale operations limited in their ability to expand and still subject to significant weather events. Development of techniques for producing oysters at high density in storm-resilient, scalable structures could exponentially expand the oyster industry, facilitate sustainability, and promote sound economic growth. Oak Island Oyster Company, operating through P&D Holdings, LLC and Southeastern Outdoors, LLC, has designed a system to grow oysters in suspended cages within open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The system consists of a series of pilings arranged into stations, each of which will contain approximately 24 cages deployed for ease of inspection, maintenance, and harvesting. Pilings and cages are arranged to allow a uniquely designed service vessel to maneuver through the site with the equipment required to service and harvest the cages (see Figure I for concept). The system is currently designed as four stations to permit the cultivation of approximately 1,000,000 oysters (3,300 sacks) per acre annually (250,000 per station), but the system is scalable. The company currently holds a Tidelands lease (Figure 2) for a site in Jackson County (Figure 3) that is zoned for agricultural use (Figure 4) and holds an aquaculture permit (Figure 5) for production on the site. We propose to partner with Oak Island Oyster Company to conduct a pilot project that will demonstrate the capability of their design for producing oysters at high density in a storm-stable, resilient structure with the capacity for significant scaling. We will accomplish this through four objectives: 1) building a pile driving barge for deploying the system and stocking it with oysters, 2) building and deploy the initial stations for proof of concept, 3) building the service vessel required to operate the system at scale, and 4) optimizing performance of oysters in the system.
10. Project Goals/Objectives: Goal: Demonstrate and validate Oak Island Oyster Company's (OIOC) system for production of oysters at high density in a stable, storm-resilient structure at the pilot scale. Objective I (Yr I). Construct pile driving barge. OIOC will build a steel vessel 35ft xl2ft powered by twin outboards that contains a raised driving platform, hydraulic spuds, and an excavator with vibratory hammer for driving our I 0-12 pilings. It has structural steel attached to the sides in a fashion that allows it to precisely place each piling in a grid system for our off site pre-fabricated truss systems to be attached in a uniform and symmetrical manner. Objective 2 (Yrs I and 2). OIOC will construct three replicate stations, each 26 ft x 26 ft and consisting of a 9 wooden piling system attached to each other thru pre-fabricated steel truss systems that allow the 24 steel cage design to suspend off the sea floor. Each station will consist of24 cages and each cage will consist of20 grow-out bags. Objective 3 (Yr 2). Build a service vessel to operate system. OIOC and Peleaze Boats will build a 40 X 13.5 ft aluminum, outboard powered service/harvest vessel with a full enclosure driving station, onboard generator, welder, high-pressure wash system, onboard fork lift ramp, and hydraulic knuckle Boom for deployment, retrieval, transport, and cleaning of cages/bags. Objective 4 (Yr 3). Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center will conduct a growth and survival experiment with live oysters in the system. Three OIOC Stations and three 6-pack OysterGro floating cages (controls) will be stocked with 1.5 - 2 million oyster seed at equal stocking densities (split to additional growout bags as the oysters grow). The OysterGro cage will be manually flipped to the desiccation position weekly and returned to the feeding position after 8-18 hours. OIOC Stations will be desiccated weekly via standard operating procedures. Sample weights and measurements of height, length, and width will be monitored for 15 oysters from 30% of the total number of bags for each OIOC Station System and each OysterGro Cage for 9 mos. Three monitors will be placed on each of the Oak Island Stations and one will be placed on each of the OysterGro Cages to monitor dissolved oxygen, temperature, water flow. The growout area will regularly be monitored for dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, pH, and presence of microalgae.
11. Which of the following authorized uses set forth in the GOMESA Act does this project fall under?

(A) Projects and activities for the purpose of coastal protection, including conservation, coastal restoration, hurricane protection, and infrastructure directly affected by coastal wetlands losses

(B) Mitigation of damage to fish, wildlife, or natural resources.: Yes: Hurricane Katrina, freshwater flooding from opening the Bonnet Carre spillway, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and changing environmental conditions have reduced the abundance of oysters on Mississippi's public reefs and likewise the commercial harvest of oyster from these reefs. Off-bottom oyster farming can diversify commercial oyster harvest by providing an opportunity to farm oysters using more controlled techniques thereby mitigating some of the challenges experienced by on-bottom traditional harvest.

(C) Implementation of a federally-approved marine, coastal, or conservation management plan.: Yes: This project addresses goals outlined in the federally approved "Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council Comprehensive Plan, Restoring the Gulf Coast's Ecosystem and Economy." Goal 2: Restore water quality and quantity: Increasing oyster abundance improves water quality. Goal 4 and 5: Enhance Community Resilience/Revitalize Economy: New technology will restore opportunities lost in the traditional on-bottom industry and enhance resilience. An increase in the supply of oysters for off-bottom culture will build community resilience and revitalize the economy through expansion and diversification of opportunities and an increase in the use of working waterfronts throughout the maritime sector.

(D) Mitigation of the impact of Outer Continental Shelf activities through funding of onshore infrastructure projects.

12. Project Timetable/Milestones: see application for Gantt chart
13. Project Timing: Short-term
14. Current status of architectural/engineering plans & specifications for this project (if applicable):

15. In what way does this project meet the goals and objectives of the Department of Marine Resources, which includes enhancing, protecting and conserving the marine interest of Mississippi for present and future generations?: This project directly addresses the goals and objectives identified in the MDMR Oyster Restoration and Recovery Plan by increasing the number of oysters produced through off bottom aquaculture on a reduced foot print. The Oak Island Station will increase the production of harvested oysters and decrease the labor needed for large production. The increased production of cultured oysters by utilizing the Oak Island Station will increase harvests available to the industry and will directly impact, enhance, and expand MS oyster aquaculture. Scaling up this production system will also increase the number of oysters in MS waters filtering and improving water quality.

16. Estimated Years To Completion: 3
17. Estimated Completion Date: 6/30/2026

Budget:

Salaries,Wages, Fringe: $181,432
Travel: $0
Architecture & Engineering: $0
Legal: $0
Consulting: $0
Construction: $0
Site Work: $0
Equipment: $0
Indirects: $123,169
Other: $890,970
Total: $1,195,571


Internal Project Number: 2024010
Application Submission Date: 07/01/2022
Fiscal Year: 2024
Project Status: Awarded
Application Status: Accepted
Meets Criteria: Yes
Internal Notes:: 1636-j

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