Report of the Working Group on Marine Shellfish Culture (WGMASC)

The meeting (Chair: Pauline Kamermans) was held on 29 March – 2 April 2010 and was attended by nine participants from six countries. It had two objectives (1) to have a joint meeting with the WGEIM to discuss topics of mutual interest and to increase collaboration and (2) to work on the Terms of Reference. The ToRs were addressed separately, followed by plenary sessions. ToR a) A discussion of WGMASC and WGEIM on the Second Draft of the Bivalve Aquaculture Dialogue Standards was carried out. The management framework takes a market-based approach with the associated costs largely borne by industry. This is a simplified ecosystem-based approach and, as such, excludes many ecosystems ser-vices that the cultured bivalves provide that may mitigate negative effects. Other emerging shellfish aquaculture issues were identified: - restoration of cultured shell-fish populations, nutrient trading by culturing shellfish, use of shellfish compounds to cure disease, co-management in shellfish aquaculture (Section 3).