Conservation aquaculture as a tool for imperiled marine species: Evaluation of opportunities and risks for Olympia oysters, Ostrea lurida.

Conservation aquaculture is becoming an important tool to support the recovery of declining marine species and meet human needs. However, this tool comes with risks as well as rewards, which must be assessed to guide aquaculture activities and recovery efforts. Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) provide key ecosystem functions and services along the west coast of North America, but populations have declined to the point of local extinction in some estuaries. Here, we present a species-level, range-wide approach to strategically planning the use of aquaculture to promote recovery of Olympia oysters. We identified 12 benefits of culturing Olympia oysters, including identifying climate-resilient phenotypes that add diversity to growers' portfolios. We also identified 11 key risks, including potential negative ecological and genetic consequences associated with the transfer of hatchery-raised oysters into wild populations. Informed by these trade-offs, we identified ten priority estuaries where aquaculture is most likely to benefit Olympia oyster recovery. The two highest scoring estuaries have isolated populations with extreme recruitment limitation-issues that can be addressed via aquaculture if hatchery capacity is expanded in priority areas. By integrating social criteria, we evaluated which project types would likely meet the goals of local stakeholders in each estuary. Community restoration was most broadly suited to the priority areas, with limited commercial aquaculture and no current community harvest of the species, although this is a future stakeholder goal. The framework we developed to evaluate aquaculture as a tool to support species recovery is transferable to other systems and species globally; we provide a guide to prioritizing local knowledge and developing recommendations for implementation by using transparent criteria. Our collaborative process engaging diverse stakeholders including managers, scientists, Indigenous Tribal representatives, and shellfish growers can be used elsewhere to seek win-win opportunities to expand conservation aquaculture where benefits are maximized for both people and imperiled species.

A global spatial analysis reveals where marine aquaculture can benefit nature and people.

Aquaculture of bivalve shellfish and seaweed represents a global opportunity to simultaneously advance coastal ecosystem recovery and provide substantive benefits to humanity. To identify marine ecoregions with the greatest potential for development of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture to meet this opportunity, we conducted a global spatial analysis using key environmental (e.g., nutrient pollution status), socioeconomic (e.g., governance quality), and human health factors (e.g., wastewater treatment prevalence). We identify a substantial opportunity for strategic sector development, with the highest opportunity marine ecoregions for shellfish aquaculture centered on Oceania, North America, and portions of Asia, and the highest opportunity for seaweed aquaculture distributed throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North and South America. This study provides insights into specific areas where governments, international development organizations, and investors should prioritize new efforts to drive changes in public policy, capacity-building, and business planning to realize the ecosystem and societal benefits of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture.

A randomized trial of a CAM therapy for stress reduction in American Indian and Alaskan Native family caregivers.

PURPOSE: Although it is widely recognized that caregivers of individuals with dementia experience elevated stress that places them at increased risk for health problems, little is known about how caregiving stress may be alleviated among underserved ethnic minority populations. The purpose of this study was to compare a complementary and alternative medicine therapy, polarity therapy (PT), to an enhanced respite control condition (ERC) to reduce stress and depression and improve quality of life for American Indian (AI) and Alaskan Native family caregivers. DESIGN AND METHODS: Forty-two AI family caregivers of individuals with dementia, living on and off reservations in the Pacific Northwest, were randomized to an 8-session trial of PT or ERC. PT is a touch therapy that uses gentle pressure on energy points and biofields to help the client achieve physiological relaxation. ERC included respite care for the person with dementia and a choice of activities for the caregiver. Average age of caregivers was 50 years (range 27-69 years); 90% were women; 52% daughters, 10% wives, 7% sons, and 31% other relatives. Outcome assessments administered at baseline and posttreatment included caregiver perceived stress, depression, quality of life, sleep quality, worry, and physical health. RESULTS: PT participants improved significantly more than ERC participants on stress (p = .01), depression (p = .045.), bodily pain (p = .02), vitality (p = .03), and general health (p = .01). IMPLICATIONS: These results indicate that the delivery of PT to AI dementia family caregivers is feasible and culturally acceptable and may be an important approach to reducing stress, depression, and pain.