Oyster farmer Perry Raso, of South Kingstown, shows off some of his crop on Potter Pond in Matunuck last year. Raso is president of the Ocean State Aquaculture Association.

Journal file photo / Bill Murphy

An expert group of scientists and fishermen is recommending that no more than 5 percent of any water body in Rhode Island be devoted to aquaculture operations.

The recommendation was made to the Coastal Resources Management Council last week by the biological subcommittee of the CRMC’s Working Group on Aquaculture Regulations.

No action was taken and the committee said more research needs to be done.

The committee based its recommendation on the biological carrying capacity of local waters for shellfishing on studies done elsewhere. It recommended seeking funding for studies that would finance local carrying capacities and doing more to monitor diseases for local fish farmers, who almost exclusively raise shellfish.

The state’s Coastal Resources Management Council, the agency regulating all coastal activities, has been actively promoting growth in the state’s aquaculture industry.

But there has been opposition from residents using Winnapaug Pond in Westerly and others using Point Judith Pond, which has the highest density of underwater platforms used to raise shellfish.

In his report to the CRMC last week, CRMC aquaculture coordinator David Alves said the group of aquaculture experts was reconvened last year after the state’s Marine Fisheries Council and some people at the state Department of Environmental Management’s Fish & Wildlife division expressed concerns about the recent growth of aquaculture farms in Rhode Island.

The group found that only about 110 acres of water in the entire state were devoted to aquaculture, Alves said. The fish farms use just 0.037 of state waters, and about 1 percent of the coastal salt ponds. The farms’ pond use ranges from .25 percent of Ninigret Pond to 2.5 percent of Point Judith Pond.

Commercial fishermen hold 57 percent of the leases.

The group noted that some forms of aquaculture, such as raising fish or shrimp in pens, can have “significant detrimental environmental effects, usually restricted to the area right around the operation.”

But they said the shellfish aquaculture practiced in Rhode Island is “most likely beneficial for the environment.”

“Oysters filter phytoplankton from the water, thereby allowing light to penetrate deeper so that submerged aquatic vegetation can grow from the bottom. They also remove nutrients from the water and can help ease the eutrophication problems in Rhode Island’s estuaries.”

The report added that the structures supporting bags of growing oysters also provide refuges for juvenile stages of several species of popular fish.

“There has been no evidence that shellfish aquaculture [as practiced in Rhode Island] is having negative environmental impacts and little reason to believe that further modest growth will have negative impacts in the future,” the report said. “Even in states where shellfish aquaculture is far more widespread, there is little evidence that the impacts have been anything other than positive.”

The council views last week’s report as a kind of status report, but it is still working toward developing a statewide aquaculture plan, according to Laura Ricketson, the CRMC’s spokeswoman.

She acknowledged that some people think there is too much aquaculture in Rhode Island already. Alves said he doubted his group would reach a consensus. He said it may submit majority and minority reports.

To view the aquaculture report, go to: www.crmc.ri.gov/projects/aquaculture

Conservation summit this month

The fifth annual Land & Water Conservation Summit is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, March 15, at the University of Rhode Island Memorial Union, with Gina McCarthy, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, as the keynote speaker.

McCarthy will speak about the No Child Left Inside Program that is aimed at reconnecting families with the outdoors.

The summit is a key event for Rhode Island’s conservationists — people who work at the local, state and federal level to preserve land and water and enhance the state.

Planning to attend are House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, who is heading a Special Commission on Water Use & Distribution, and state Sen. Susan Sosnowski, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee and co-chair of a Senate committee on water supplies.

Registration of $55 covers breakfast and lunch. To register, go to www.landandwaterpartnership.org

The conference is cosponsored by the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program and the Rhode Island Association of Conservation Commissions.

Lecture topic: Energy and ethics

Kenneth Payne, former director of the state Senate Policy Office, will talk about energy and ethics at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the second of a series of lectures on local energy use.

“Ethical Dwelling: the Relationship Between Energy and Ethics” is the title of the talk Payne will give in Corliss Auditorium at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus.

Payne will explore the relationship between individual and community choices and energy use. He will address what it means to live a good life in healthy communities and “how to get where we want to be” when it comes to energy use and production.

Payne is now the senior policy adviser for the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences and an adjunct professor of marine affairs. In his career with the state Senate, Payne wrote major pieces of legislation regarding the state’s energy policy.

The URI Energy Lecture Series will continue with talks on April 2, 16 and 23. For more information, contact Marion Gold at (401) 874-5705 or go to www.uri.edu/cels/ceoc/

Rhode Islanders honored in D.C.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave national awards last week to two Rhode Islanders for their work in ocean and coastal management.

The agency’s Walter B. Jones Coastal Steward Award went to Lynne Z. Hale, who directs the Marine Initiative for the Rhode Island offices of The Nature Conservancy. The Initiative’s goal is to expand programs that affect coastal and marine conservation.

Hale joined The Nature Conservancy in 2003 after working for 15 years as associate director at the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center.

The agency gave a Coastal and Marine Graduate Study Award to Catherine McNally, who is a fellow in the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program at URI. She is working on her doctorate at URI and focusing her research on the effects of anthropogenic nitrogen on coastal ecosystems.

NOAA Administrator Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher gave the awards in a ceremony last Wednesday in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

“From coast to coast, remarkable people and organizations are making a difference,” Lautenbacher said in a statement. The awards are named after the late 11-term congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, who was a strong supporter of the National Marine Fisheries Service and coastal zone management.

The Environmental Journal is a listing of brief news items about the actions of individuals, organizations and businesses that affect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the landscape that surrounds us. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact environment reporter Peter B. Lord at (401) 277-8036, or by email at plord@projo.com or by writing him, care of The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.