The Virginia seafood industry is booming. The Commonwealth leads the nation in the production of aquaculture raised hard clams, and the first on the East Coast in producing eastern oysters. Virginia Sea Grant (VSG) was awarded $1.9 million in research funds from NOAA’s National Sea Grant Aquaculture Initiative, which provided $9.3 million in all through an aquaculture research competition. This competition is focused on funding research evaluating limitations to production in aquaculture, which could include harmful algal blooms (HABs), seawater chemistry, and microorganisms. The Virginia funding will launch six projects on the Eastern Shore and at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

At VIMS, four projects were funded. Research Associate Professor and Project Leader Ryan Carnegie will be leading a project to identify technical or biological strategies to support healthy hatchery microbiomes. VIMS Assistant Professor Emily Rivest will lead a project with Oyster Seed Holdings to evaluate oyster hatchery conditions, using lab studies to inform production at hatcheries. VIMS professor Kimberly Reece, will investigate strategies to minimize the impacts of HABs on oyster survival. Focusing on clams, director of VIM’s Eastern Shore Lab Richard Snyder will characterize new brood stock lines of wild clam populations to test their suitability for aquaculture.

Another project was funded at the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research Station and Extension Center (AREC) at Virginia Tech, partnering with researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Florida, and Reed Mariculture. Their project will focus on rearing marine finfish past the larval stage. Finally, a project led in part by the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William and Mary’s Law School will look at the legal challenges facing the aquaculture industry.

To read more about the projects, check out this PDF summarizing the award recipients.