Traditional Use and Hnrsst Rates of Shellfish Especially Razor Clams
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project Final Report Clam Restoration Project Restoration Project 99 131 Final Report Dr. Kenneth M. Brooks (clam growout) Jon Agosti (hatchery development) Jeff Hetrick (clam nursery: razor clams) David Daisy (project development) Chugach Regional Resources Commission 4201 Tudor Centre Drive, Suite 300 Anchorage, Alaska 99508 for: Alaska Department of Fish and Game Habitat and Restoration Division 333 Raspberry Road Anchorage, Alaska 995 18 August 200 1 Clam Restoration Project Restoration Project 99 131 Final Report Studv History: This project was initiated under Restoration Project 95 131, a five-year pilot project entitled NanwaleMPort GrahardTatitlek Subsistence Clam Restoration. It was developed at the request of the villages impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The project title was changed to Clam Restoration Project in 1996. The project initially included work with littleneck clams, razor clams and the basket cockle. It included seedstock development at the Qutekcak Shellfish Hatchery in Seward and at shellfish nurseries at Tatitlek and Chenega Bay, growout trials at the villages, and expanding the project to additional villages. Expanding the project to additional villages was dropped after FY96 to reduce costs and give the project better focus. Work with cockles and razor calms was dropped after FY97 for the same reason. The project did encompass the five-year time period as initially planned. Annual reports were produced for FY95, FY96, FY97 and FY98 and were used in the production of this report. Abstract: Procedures for establishing safe, easily accessible subsistence clam populations near Native villages in the oil spill region, which would be relatively inexpensive to set up and maintain, were developed and tested on beaches near the Native villages of Nanwalek, Tatitlek and Port Graham. Beaches with different energy levels and substrates were included to determine the most suitable beach types. All growout testing was done with littleneck clam (Protothaca staminea) seed supplied by the Qutekcak Shellfish Hatchery, which developed the techniques for culturing this seed. Studies using a tidal floating upwelling system (FLUPSY) to nursery hatchery seed to a size suitable for planting in a growout area were conducted. Seed development work with the basket or Nuttall's cockle (Clinocardium nuttallii) was also initiated under this project, but was dropped to focus on littleneck clams. Razor clam (Siliqua patula) studies near the Native village of Eyak were dropped after two years of work. The growout work with littleneck clams demonstrates the potential for subsistence littleneck clam enhancement and identifies beach types that are most suitable. Kev Words: Basket cockles (Clinocardium nuttallii), clam restoration, Exxon Valdez oil spill, FLUPSY, littleneck clam (Protothaca staminea), Nanwalek, Port Graham, Qutekcak Shellfish Hatchery, razor clams (Protothaca staminea), seedstock development, shellfish nursery, subsistence, Tatitlek. Pro-iect Data: Description of data - screened data for littleneck clam growth and survival in growout, razor clam beaches substrate analyses, razor clam length and age of collected specimens, nursery seed growth and survival data, littleneck clam growth and survival at various stages in the Qutekcak shellfish hatchery. Format - Littleneck clam growout growth and survival data is entered on Excel spreadsheets; razor clam data is presented in the razor clam reports in the appendix; nursery data is on hand written spreadsheets; hatchery data is in the Qutekcak hatchery logbooks. Custodian - Littleneck clam nrowout data: contact Diana Rhodes, CRRC, 4201 Tudor Centre Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, phone (907) 562-6647, e-mail phone (907) 288-3667, e-mail [email protected]; Hatcherv data: contact Jon Agosti, Qutekcak Shellfish Hatchery, P.O. Box 369, Seward, AK 99664, phone (907) 224-5 181, e-mail [email protected]. Availability - Littleneck clam growout data is available on floppy disk; Nursery data: not all data is available, available data can be faxed; Hatchery data: hatchery logs can be viewed at the hatchery. Small amounts of data can be e-mailed or faxed. Citation: Brooks, K.M., J. Agosti, J. Hetrick, and D. Daisy. 2001. Clam restoration project, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project Final Report (Restoration Project 9913 l), Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Habitat and Restoration Division, Anchorage, Alaska. Ekxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project # 99131, Clam Restoration Project Final Report Table of Contents Page Executive Summary 1 Introduction Objectives Hatchery Culture of Littleneck Clams Methods Results Discussion Tidal FLUPSY Nursery System Methods Results Discussion Littleneck Clam Growout Studies Baseline Surveys Methods Results Baseline Surveys on selected study beaches Tatitlek Nanwalek Port Graham Baseline Surveys for Future Enhancement Chenega Bay Ouzinke Discussion Clam Enhancement Studies Methods Results Tatitlek Nanwalek Port Graham Discussion Conclusion Acknowledgements References List of Tables 1. Smmary of bivalves collected in 35,O. 1 m2 samples at the Tatitlek Village beach on August 27, 1995. 2. Summary descriptive statistics for living and dead butter clams sampled at the Tatitlek Village beach on August 27, 1995. Samples include 103 empty butter clam valves which were measured and aged. 3. Summary descriptive statistics for living native littleneck clams sampled in 35,O.l m2 quadrats at the Tatitlek Village beach on August 27, 1995. 4. Number of starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides, Pisaster ochraceus) and presumed sea otter (Enhydra lutris) pits observed at the Tatitlek village shellfish beach on August 27, 1995. All counts are provided in numbers per square meter. 5. Summary of bivalves collected in 18, 0.1 m2 samples at the Nanwalek Village beach at Passage Island on August 26,1995 6. Summary descriptive statistics for living butter clams sampled at the Nanwalek Village's Passage Island beach on August 26, 1995. 7. Summary descriptive statistics for living native littleneck clams sampled in 18,O.1 m2 quadrats at the Nanwalek Village's beach at Passage Island on August 26, 1995. 8. Summary of living bivalves collected in 12,O.l m2 samples from Murphy's Slough on August 26, 1995. 9. Summary of bivalves collected in 20,O. 1 m2 samples at Crab bay near the Village of Chenega on June 29,1996. 10. Summary descriptive statistics for living butter clams retrieved from Crab Bay sediment samples near the Village of Chenega on June 29, 1996. 11. Summary descriptive statistics for living cockles sampled in 20,O. 1 m2 quadrats at the Chenega Village shellfish beach in Crab Bay on June 29, 1996. 12. Summary descriptive statistics for living native littleneck clams sampled in 20,O. 1 m2 quadrats at the Chenega Village shellfish beach in Crab Bay on June 29, 1996 13. Summary of most relevant Pearson correlation coefficients. The probability (p) that the coefficient equals zero is also provided. Significant coefficients (at a = 0.05) are bolded. For all variables, the valid number of cases was 88 14. Summary of bivalves collected in 22,O. 1 m2 samples at the Ouzinke Village beach at Narrow Strait on July 2, 1996. 15. Summary descriptive statistics for living butter clams sampled at the Ouzinke Village's shellfish beach on July 2, 1996. 16. Summary descriptive statistics for living native littleneck clams sampled in 22,O. 1 m2 quadrats at the Ouzinke Village's beach on Narrow Strait on July 2, 1996. 17. Sampling dates for growout trials. Blue entries represent annual fieldwork supervised by the CRRC field team. Data collection on other dates was accomplished by Port Graham village residents. Days in growout are provided in parentheses. 18. Proportion surviving native littleneck clams determined in six replicate 0.01 82 m2 8 1 samples collected at each of three tidal levels on September 9, 1999 following three years of field growout. The clams were originally seeded at a density of 300 clams per square meter in three replicate plots located at each of three tidal elevations. The seeded areas were cultivated and either protected with plastic netting or left unprotected 19. Summary of the proportion fines (silt and clay < 64 pm particle size), total volatile 9 1 solids (TVS) as a proportion of sediment dry weight, and depth (cm) of the reduction oxidation potential discontinuity (RPD) observed in control areas, in seeded areas under plastic netting and in unprotected but seeded areas. All values are means of three replicates + one standard deviation. 20. Survival of clams grown in Murphy's Slough at three tidal elevations. Mean 93 numbers of surviving clams in three replicate bags and the standard deviation is provided for each tidal elevation on each day. Only one bag was found on days 499, 660 and 989 in the -1.5' MLLW block. One of the two missing bags was retrieved from deep water on day 1162. 2 1. Assumptions for developing subsistence littleneck clam enhancement program cost 104 estimate 22. Littleneck clam subsistence enhancement program cost estimate 104 List of Figures 1. Map of project area 5 2. Hatchery produced native littleneck clam seed ready for planting; 2b. Four-year-old 7 native littleneck clams still showing the polished appearance of the early shell; 2c. Wild native littleneck clam from Tatitlek 3. Valve length growth of littleneck clam seed placed in tidal FLUPSY near Tatitlek 15 from April 3 to October 23, 1998 4. Percent survival of littleneck clam seed placed in tidal FLUPSY near Tatitlek from 15 April 3 to October 23, 1998 5. Growth of littleneck clam seed placed in tidal FLUPSY near Tatitlek from June 3 to October 1, 1999 16 6. Percent survival of littleneck clam seed placed in tidal FLUPSY near Tatitlek from 16 April 1 to October 1, 1999 7. Comparison of percent increases in average valve length of littleneck clam seed in the 16 tidal FLUPSY near Tatitlek, 1998 and 1999 8. Aluminum sampling quadrat covering an area of 0.1 m2 with a removable W sieve 18 9. Typical valves of a) Nuttall's cockle (Clinocardium nuttallii), b) butter clams 20 (Saxidomus giganteus) and c) native littleneck clams (Protothaca staminea).