A CASE FOR SUBVENTION OF PRIVATE LANDOWNERS IN THE LOUISIANA COASTAL ZONE

The Louisiana Coastal Zone (LCZ) is experiencing an unparalleled crisis of wetland loss, most of which (75%) is occurring on private lands. This paper use agricultural conservation policy as a comparative construct in a commentary that examines the rationale and methodology of providing economic incentives to subsidize wetland restoration on private lands in the LCZ.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Quantifying Sustainability in Aquaculture Production.

Despite increasing institutional focus in aquaculture, sustainability remains an amorphous and much debated concept. Little consensus has been identified on the issue beyond the general recognition that the concept should contain environmental, economic, and sociological considerations. This study addressed the specific, relevant question of whether politically diverse aquacuiture interests can collectively develop and agree on production-level goals and indicators of aquaculture sustainability. The research partitioned sustainability into its three subcategories: environmental, economic and social. This division facilitated the use of existing conventions of measurement and expression in each subcategory. Employing a modified Delphi technique, over 100 aquaculture stakeholders in the Southeastern U. S. were surveyed for the purpose of identifying and refining indicators of aquaculture sustainability. Aquaculture producers, researchers, regulators, and members of non-governmental organizations participating in a three-round Delphi survey and collectively identified 31 indicators of aquaculture sustainability. Survey participants provided 1,622 items for consideration as potential indicators in round 1. These items were condensed by similarity into 31 indicators and returned to the panel for comment in rounds 2 and 3. Non-parametric statistical analysis of the survey data indicated a high level of panel agreement by the final round of the survey. Significant levels of ordinal rank correlation were detected using Friedman\u27s randomized block design (alpha = 0.05). Increasing levels of rank convergence were detected by high values for Kendall\u27s statistic of concordance ( W∼0.65. . Indicators were arranged into preliminary sub-indices of environmental, economic, and sociological sustainability. Sub-indices were combined into an overall index based on a trigonometric approach that expresses aquaculture sustainability as the ratio of case study and optimal vectors, with a relevant scoring range of --100 to 100. The resulting model is referred to as a multi-criteria index of Delphi-assessed sustainability (MIDAS). A 50-hectare, owner operated simulation was used to initialize case studies with channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and crawfish (Procambaraus clarkii) and (Procambarus zonagulus). Case study scores ranged from 18 to 24 for crawfish and channel catfish production, respectively. With further refinement, to index has potential for production level evaluations of aquaculture sustainability in the Southeastern United States

Estimating the Economic Damage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Commercial and Recreational Fishing Industries

A USGS analysis of land change data from satellite imagery and field observation indicated that 217 square miles of Louisiana's coastal wetlands were converted to open water because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Because of their physical location and marine-dependence, commercial and recreational fishing sectors in Louisiana received a disproportional economic impact from the hurricanes of 2005. Storm surge modeling was accomplished using the ADCIRC model with data generated by the National Weather Service on storm trajectory and storm magnitude and detailed data on coastal bathymetry and elevation. In our application of the ADCIRC model, a grid composed of 1 square-mile cells (and encompassing the entire coastal management zone) was used within a GIS context to predict peak storm surge water heights at every known fixed fishing infrastructure location (dealers, processors, marinas, etc.) in Louisiana. We then collected primary data from a sample of these locations that was used in estimating, among other things, the percent of infrastructure that was lost due to the storms and the dollar amount of that damage for each location. These two pieces of information were then used to statistically estimate a geographically specific surge height damage function that was subsequently applied to all (non-sample) infrastructure sites in coastal Louisiana, thereby allowing the calculation of aggregate storm impacts. Developing an estimate of direct damages to the commercial and recreational fleet required two distinct pieces of information - an accounting of the number of vessels lost or damaged during the storms, and a measure of the market value of each of the lost vessels. Given that no comprehensive listing of lost or damaged vessels was compiled post-storm, the loss of vessels was estimated by comparing the presence of vessels in trip-ticket data during the 8 month period following the storms with the same period from the previous year. A vessel that was absent in the post-storm period was assumed lost, and valued by its physical characteristics by employing a price regression estimated using data collected from the major commercial used-vessel marketing trade publications and websites. The loss of recreational vessels was similarly estimated using market-based price data from non-commercial marketing publications and state-maintained databases of recreational vessels and their characteristics. Loss estimates were developed separately for each of the 4 coastal management zones in Louisiana and then aggregated. In aggregate, dealers were estimated to have incurred $103,522,186 in losses due to the storms while processors across the coast were estimated to have experienced$63,836,142 in losses, for a total of $167,358,328. For comparison purposes, these losses are approximately 29 percent of the total annual revenue generated by the dealers and processors in Louisiana. Estimated commercial fleet losses amounted to$153,817,470, while the estimated total recreational fleet loss was estimated to be $224,004,486. Regional variations in losses were also examined and linked to specific storm characteristics. Interestingly, the sum of these loss estimates fall near the mid-point of the range of loss estimates generated by various rapid assessments in the weeks following the storms, suggesting that rapid assessment methods (at least in aggregate) may not be as subjective as they first appear.Agribusiness, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Calibrating Online Survey Sample for Economic Impact Analysis

Online surveys have emerged as low-cost data collection approach in empirical researches; however, the validity of data remains questionable. Therefore, we employed a stochastic frontier estimation method to calibrate online recreational expenditure. Study results suggested the presence of inefficiency on online surveys. Analysis was extended to estimate economic impact of nature based recreation on a local economy.calibration, online survey, onsite survey, stochastic frontier approach, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Develping Consensus Indicators of Sustainability for Southeastern United States Aquaculture (Bulletin #879)

This study investigates whether diverse aquaculture interest groups can collectively agree on ways to coordinate this resource use by developing goals and indicators of aquaculture sustainability. Specifically, this study used aquaculture experts from the production, research, regulatory and public interest sectors to identify and weight a broad range of indicators of aquaculture sustainability in the southeastern United States.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_bulletins/1021/thumbnail.jp

Design and Cost Analysis of a Self-contained Mobile Laboratory for Commercial-scale Aquatic Species Cryopreservation

© Copyright by the World Aquaculture Society 2018 Although aquatic species cryopreservation protocols have been studied around the world over the past 60 yr., germplasm repository development efforts and commercialization have begun only recently. The goal of this project was to develop a self-contained mobile laboratory for on-site high-throughput cryopreservation of aquatic species. The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify how a mobile laboratory would function in different operational scenarios, (2) customize an enclosed cargo trailer to function as a mobile laboratory, (3) evaluate the laboratory layout and ability of cryopreservation equipment to operate from generator power, and (4) document the investment costs for private and public groups to integrate a mobile laboratory into an existing cryopreservation facility at three levels of automation and estimate the total cost per trip based on hypothetical assumptions for two scenarios (aquaculture production and repository development). There were three operational designs identified for the mobile laboratory: (1) self-contained work inside the unit using generator power, (2) work inside the unit using external facility power, and (3) using the equipment inside of a host facility. The investment costs for a base-level mobile laboratory ranged between US$5670 and US$5787 for private groups and between US$5208 and US$5315 for public groups. With the addition of a range of automated processing equipment, total investment costs ranged from US$13,616 to US$103,529 for private groups and US$12,494 to US$94,891 for public groups. The total cost per trip to cryopreserve sperm of 59 blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, males to produce 6300 0.5-mL French straws was estimated to range from US$6089 to US$14,633 for private and between US$5703 and US$16,938 for public groups depending on the level of automation. Total cost per trip to cryopreserve sperm of 500 males of five different species in the genus Xiphophorus to produce 641 0.25-mL French straws was estimated to range from US$6653 to US$7640 for private and US$7582 to US$8088 for public groups depending on level of automation. Overall, a commercial-scale mobile laboratory was developed that can assist current germplasm activities and support future repository and industry development, and the layout information provided can help others to design and build comparable units

The Economics and Politics of Fisheries Disaster Recovery: Louisiana's Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

On the morning of 29 August 2005, Southeast Louisiana was decimated by the winds and flood surge associated with Hurricane Katrina. Shortly thereafter, Hurricane Rita played havoc on the Southwestern part of the state. Louisiana's commercial seafood industry, already on the decline for a number of reasons, including declining output prices, was further crippled as a result of damage to vessels, docks, processors, and the distribution sector. Even those fishermen who were able to fish immediately after the hurricanes experienced problems selling the product due to the decimation of the distribution sector and the paucity of local customers. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has been active in attempting to rebuild the commercial industry and, with the aid of economists at Louisiana State University, is attempting to more accurately estimate the damage caused by the hurricanes. Complicating the estimation of these damages is the fact that many of the fishermen, dealers, and processors were geographically displaced and unavailable for interviewing purposes. Estimates of damages must therefore be calculated using alternative methodologies, two of which are outlined in this paper. Additionally, the paper provides coverage of ongoing rebuilding efforts and the potential strength and weaknesses of these efforts in light of recent the economic trends facing the commercial fisheries in Louisiana

Framework for a Community Health Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico Region: Preparing for Future Disasters

© Copyright © 2020 Sandifer, Knapp, Lichtveld, Manley, Abramson, Caffey, Cochran, Collier, Ebi, Engel, Farrington, Finucane, Hale, Halpern, Harville, Hart, Hswen, Kirkpatrick, McEwen, Morris, Orbach, Palinkas, Partyka, Porter, Prather, Rowles, Scott, Seeman, Solo-Gabriele, Svendsen, Tincher, Trtanj, Walker, Yehuda, Yip, Yoskowitz and Singer. The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region is prone to disasters, including recurrent oil spills, hurricanes, floods, industrial accidents, harmful algal blooms, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GoM and other regions of the U.S. lack sufficient baseline health information to identify, attribute, mitigate, and facilitate prevention of major health effects of disasters. Developing capacity to assess adverse human health consequences of future disasters requires establishment of a comprehensive, sustained community health observing system, similar to the extensive and well-established environmental observing systems. We propose a system that combines six levels of health data domains, beginning with three existing, national surveys and studies plus three new nested, longitudinal cohort studies. The latter are the unique and most important parts of the system and are focused on the coastal regions of the five GoM States. A statistically representative sample of participants is proposed for the new cohort studies, stratified to ensure proportional inclusion of urban and rural populations and with additional recruitment as necessary to enroll participants from particularly vulnerable or under-represented groups. Secondary data sources such as syndromic surveillance systems, electronic health records, national community surveys, environmental exposure databases, social media, and remote sensing will inform and augment the collection of primary data. Primary data sources will include participant-provided information via questionnaires, clinical measures of mental and physical health, acquisition of biological specimens, and wearable health monitoring devices. A suite of biomarkers may be derived from biological specimens for use in health assessments, including calculation of allostatic load, a measure of cumulative stress. The framework also addresses data management and sharing, participant retention, and system governance. The observing system is designed to continue indefinitely to ensure that essential pre-, during-, and post-disaster health data are collected and maintained. It could also provide a model/vehicle for effective health observation related to infectious disease pandemics such as COVID-19. To our knowledge, there is no comprehensive, disaster-focused health observing system such as the one proposed here currently in existence or planned elsewhere. Significant strengths of the GoM Community Health Observing System (CHOS) are its longitudinal cohorts and ability to adapt rapidly as needs arise and new technologies develop