Determining Benthic Impacts

Identification and Development of Cost-effective Biological Indicators or Techniques for Determining Benthic Impacts from Coastal Fish Farm Operations on Soft-bottom Marine Sediments.

Biological monitoring of the marine macro-benthic community is one regulatory requirement of the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection for the fish farming industry (Finfish Aquaculture Waste Control Regulation, 2002). Over the past 20 years, a number of strategies have emerged for streamlining and/or increasing the ecological sensitivity of macro-benthic community monitoring. These strategies have included sroting and identification of key indicator species or groups, as well as a wide range of statistical and data manipulation techniques. In this project, BCARDC is supporting the identification, adoption/development and verification of a streamlined approach that could be applied to the seabed areas of the BC coast. The recommended strategy should provide a cost-efficient approach relative to techniques presently in use for determining critical limits or otherwise unacceptable biological impacts.