Oyster Aquaculture Nutrient Removal Calculator
October 08, 2024
This calculator estimates the amount of nitrogen oyster farms remove from the water. Nutrient removal is a key environmental benefit of oysters. The calculator produces a report that can be included in a permit application.
I'm an Oyster Grower. What Can This Calculator Do For Me?
If you are an oyster grower and your farm is located from Maine to North Carolina, you can use the Aquaculture Nutrient Removal Calculator to predict the amount of nitrogen your current or planned oyster farm will remove from the water upon harvest. The calculator is supported by a peer-reviewed publication synthesizing data on sizes and nitrogen concentration of farmed oysters. Nutrient removal is a key environmental benefit that oysters provide.
The calculator generates a report that an oyster grower can include in permit applications for new or expanding oyster farms, specifically during the Army Corps Public Interest Review process.
What New Features Will Be Added to the Oyster Calculator?
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The calculator was built to incorporate new data and information as they become available.
We will soon add phosphorus removal to the calculator for a more comprehensive estimate of nutrient removal. We also plan to add a function specific to calculating the amount of nutrients removed by oyster seed.
Fish habitat is another valuable ecosystem service that shellfish farms provide. The team plans to create a fish habitat calculator to estimate the habitat benefits that shellfish farms provide using data collected by the GoPro Aquaculture Project and partner projects.
We see opportunities to extend the tools beyond oysters to other commonly farmed bivalve shellfish, such as clams and mussels. We could expand the tool to other geographic areas where there is enough local data to support the calculation of nitrogen removal.
Can I Use this Oyster Calculator for Oyster Restoration?
This calculator is uniquely based on a large dataset that synthesizes data collected from farmed oysters from 10 states from North Carolina to Maine. These calculations are specific to farmed oysters. Many other organizations maintain oyster calculators that focus on measuring the ecosystem services provided by oyster restoration projects, such as the Mapping Ocean Wealth Oyster Calculator.
How Do I Provide Feedback on this Oyster Calculator?
We are actively seeking feedback from the shellfish aquaculture community to help improve the tool. Send your feedback to es.tools@noaa.gov.