{"id":57225,"date":"2015-05-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-researchers-to-examine-opinions-about-aquaculture-uses-of-salt-ponds\/"},"modified":"2015-05-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T00:00:00","slug":"uri-researchers-to-examine-opinions-about-aquaculture-uses-of-salt-ponds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/05\/uri-researchers-to-examine-opinions-about-aquaculture-uses-of-salt-ponds\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 researchers to examine opinions about aquaculture, uses of salt ponds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 26, 2015 \u2013 A team of 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers will survey Rhode Islanders and assess their use of local waterways as part of two studies examining the different ways that local waters are used and what people think about those uses.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe first project aims to better understand the level of support for or opposition to aquaculture farms in Rhode Island\u2019s public waterways and the factors that influence that support. A survey will be mailed to 1,400 Rhode Islanders in the next two weeks that researchers hope will start to gauge how much aquaculture development residents will tolerate.<\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to Tracey Dalton, 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of marine affairs and the leader of the study, the number of aquaculture farms in Rhode Island has grown from 22 to 55 in the last 10 years, and it is expected to continue growing. She seeks to understand what she calls the \u201csocial carrying capacity\u201d of aquaculture in the state or the amount of aquaculture a water body can support before Rhode Islanders deem it no longer acceptable.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMost aquaculture farms are relatively small \u2013 about three acres \u2013 but as more farms are being proposed, there have been some pretty contentious public meetings about them,\u201d said Dalton, who is collaborating on the survey with a researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. \u201cWe want to see what the threshold is before people say \u2018no more.\u2019 And we expect this threshold will be different for different groups of people.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tState policy limits aquaculture in Rhode Island\u2019s salt ponds to covering no more than 5 percent of the surface water. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBut that was based on ecological studies and a political process to determine what would work best,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to use a more scientific approach to determine if that number is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe second study, led by Robert Thompson, 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of marine affairs, will focus on how people use the Quonochontaug, Ninigret and Pt. Judith salt ponds in South County. From June through early September, 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers will use a Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management boat to traverse the ponds and record what activities people are engaged in. They will also visit public access points to the ponds to interview local residents and other users of the ponds.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe way people are using the ponds is changing, especially with the increasing number of aquaculture facilities being proposed,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cSo we want to know what people are doing there now and see how it may change as environmental conditions and policies change.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThis study follows up on a similar study conducted of the public uses of upper Narragansett Bay. The salt pond study was launched last year, but many of those interviewed were tourists, so this year the researchers will try to reach more of those who live near the ponds.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cAt public meetings about aquaculture proposals, people often talk about all the other ways people use the ponds, but there is not much real data about what\u2019s happening out there,\u201d Dalton added.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe data she and her colleagues collect will be useful for planning aquaculture and other potential future uses of the ponds. DEM officials, who are collaborating on the study, are especially interested in how much the ponds are used for recreational fishing.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe also hope it will help us better understand the conflicts and compatibilities among different uses of the ponds,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cIt\u2019s an effort to look at the coastal space we have in Rhode Island and how people interact in it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Tracey Dalton uses binoculars to observe the various ways people use Rhode Island\u2019s salt ponds. (Photo courtesy of Tracey Dalton)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 26, 2015 \u2013 A team of 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers will survey Rhode Islanders and assess their use of local waterways as part of two studies examining the different ways that local waters are used and what people think about those uses. The first project aims to better understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}