Fish Habitat: Essential Fish Habitat and Rehabilitation

Part Six: Fish Habitat Rehabilitation and Socioeconomic Issues

Scott A. Holt

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569124.ch28

Identification and preservation of critical habitat for fishes is an important component of the federal essential fish habitat policy. Another important component of the overall picture is restoration or creation of habitat. The following four chapters explore issues associated with habitat restoration and enhancement. Habitat restoration projects are becoming a typical part of wetland management programs in both coastal and inland environments. The studies described here show how restoration projects can take advantage of comprehensive basic ecological studies of fishes to maximize the quality of the new habitat.

Two of these studies, by Michele Dionne et al. and Mark Minton, deal with restoration of coastal marshes in the New England area, where relatively little is known about the fish production value of salt marshes compared with other East Coast and Gulf of Mexico marshes. It is clear from both of these studies that the physical aspects of restoration, especially marsh elevation relative to tide height and the ratio of marsh area relative to open water, play important roles in restoration success. Both studies also address persistent questions about the functional capacity of created and restored marshes compared with natural marshes. The chapter by William Herrnkind et al. reviews a long-term study of spiny lobsters in the Florida Keys. This study shows how identification (through long-term research) of critical bottlenecks in the life history of a species may allow effective habitat remediation or enhancement actions that save research time and money. The final chapter by Loren Coen et al. explores the role of oyster reefs as essential fish habitat for both successful settlement of new oysters and for a variety of finfish species. This oyster reef research program has demonstrated the complexities associated with restoring living reefs to produce habitat for associated fishes.

Overall, these studies suggest directions for further research needed to identify habitat characteristics critical to successful fish habitat rehabilitation projects. Habitat rehabilitation will continue to be an important component of management efforts to maintain sustainable fisheries and marine biodiversity.